Key in the Kingdom
by Morena Evensong
Summary: It had been a perfectly ordinary day. And then he met her." Spoilers for all of season 1 and now the first half of season 2. Please read epilogue warning!
1. First Encounter

I came to the conclusion after season 1 of Merlin, that there weren't enough crossovers in this fandom. I've been sitting on the first few chapters of this since May. This is something I'm working on in between my main fic "The Prophecy of Four", which will continue to be my main focus. It's just a bit of fun, really.

Disclaimer: I own neither _Merlin_, nor _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_.

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-1**Key in the Kingdom**

**First Encounter**

It had been a perfectly ordinary day. And then he met her.

Arthur Pendragon was just on his way down from the battlements. He shivered slightly at the sudden temperature change, as the inside of the castle was much cooler than it had been outside in the sun - it was a truly gorgeous day out, bright sun and clear blue sky. Prime weather for a potential enemy attack, which is, of course, why his inspection had taken twice as long as usual. It never paid to be too cautious.

An entire month had passed without anything dangerous or mystical happening, which left the entire castle in high spirits. Even his father had been in a good mood during lunch and Morgana had seemed calmer than she had in a while. She'd even smiled at him. The morning drills with his knights had gone smoothly with everyone in top form and resulted in only a few scratches and bruises.

To top everything, Merlin had been in an unusually competent mood and had managed to bring his breakfast up to him in the morning - on time and still warm - without spilling anything. In fact, he'd managed to last all the way through most of lunch before proving he was still the same young man Arthur employed and not some teacup enchanted to look like his manservant. What, exactly, he'd managed to trip over was a still complete mystery to Arthur, but the surprised noises and flailing arms had been rather comical to watch. Though, it was a shame about the wine. Even as Arthur had rolled his eyes and said something suitably scathing, he'd noticed his father holding back laughter out of the corner of his eye.

So maybe it was a very good day, if completely ordinary.

But all that changed as Arthur got to the bottom of the tower stairs and saw _her_.

She was standing in the middle of the corridor, blinking in confusion at the stone walls. Being the hot-blooded young man that he was, the first thing Arthur noticed was how bare her shoulders were, a green slip of fabric that hung off them being the only thing that covered her torso. She was wearing odd-looking breeches, which hugged her form and left very little to the imagination. Really, the girl might as well have been naked for all the good her clothing did. Despite her skinny form, Arthur couldn't help how his throat went dry.

He shook his head. He was the Crown Prince of Camelot; crown princes did not have their brains turn to mush at the mere sight of a half-naked woman. It was the sort of thing an enemy could easily exploit.

"What are you doing here?!" he demanded loudly, glad his voice sounded calm.

The girl yelped and turned around, long brown hair swishing behind her. Her green eyes were wide and full of surprise.

"Uh, um, hi," she stammered. "Sorry, I didn't see you there. I, uh, seem to be kinda lost." She paused and scanned the corridor again. "Really, really lost." She looked back to him. "Where am I?"

Arthur frowned. The girl's accent was strange, not like anything he'd ever heard before and Uther had entertained plenty of foreign nobility over the years, so he'd heard a lot of different accents.

"You happen to be in the north part of the castle leading up to the castle battlements," he said slowly, watching her reactions. Annoyance flashed through her eyes.

"Don't suppose you could be a bit more specific?" she asked. "I kinda guessed I was in a castle or something, 'cause the stone walls and all look very castle-like. Not that I've been in a whole lot of castles, mind you. But, um, anyway, if this is a castle then it should have a name. Most castles have names, right?"

Arthur stared at her. She stared back. After a few moments she began to bite her bottom lip nervously and it was then that he suddenly realized she was expecting him to respond.

"So, you're saying you have absolutely no idea where you are?" he asked in the same tone he often used on his manservant that essentially translated to: 'is it really physically possible for someone to be this stupid?'.

The girl smiled nervously.

"Yup, sorry, really don't."

Arthur sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Then how, exactly, did you get here?"

No response.

Arthur looked up and froze at the now-empty corridor. He ran down the length of the hall and then around the corner. He stopped and then went to look back to the corridor where he'd just been.

The girl was gone.

Arthur stood there for a few moments, before heading towards his chambers. Perhaps he was just tired. The strangest things always seemed to happen on the most ordinary days. 


	2. Second Encounter

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything in either _Merlin_ or _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_.

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**Key in the Kingdom**

**Second Encounter**

A week had passed since Arthur's encounter with the strange, young woman with nothing unusual or overtly suspicious happening. Arthur decided he must've imagined the entire thing. Except that it would mean he was going feeble in the mind and crown princes do not go feeble in the mind, therefore it had to have been the fault of something in the lunch-time wine (he swore he'd thought it'd tasted strange that day). And possibly the sun. Yes: bad wine and sun, that was definitely what had happened.

He'd wisely not mentioned the strange girl to anyone - Morgana would no doubt tease him mercilessly for imagining a half-naked girl in an abandoned corridor. And Merlin would give him 'the look' - the one where he was carefully keeping his facial muscles as still as possible so as not to outwardly look as though as he were making fun of Arthur, except for the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth and his eyes, which were clearly howling in laughter.

Or, the woman might've been a whore, who'd gotten lost on her way from one of the knight's chambers and run off (very, very quickly) once she'd realized who he was. There was absolutely no point in getting anyone into trouble over something so silly...

In short, Arthur had just about forgotten the encounter and certainly never expected to see her ever again. So, naturally, it only stood to reason, that he did.

Arthur was heading towards his chambers after morning training when it happened - in truth, he was paying more attention to trying to figure out a way to beat Sir Davin's bad habit of lowering his sword arm too early than where he was going. However, servants generally moved out of his way on their own, so it usually didn't matter how preoccupied he was.

Except that as he rounded the corner, something very solid failed to move out of his way - something that yelped in surprise before bouncing off his armour. Which wouldn't have seemed as strange if not for the fact that it didn't sound at all like Merlin.

"Ow, geez, Xander, could you watch where you're going when you've got that thing on?!"

Arthur froze. He knew that accent. He looked down and sure enough, sprawled on the ground at his feet, was the mysterious girl he'd encountered in the corridor the week before. She was wearing similar breeches as before, but her upper body was considerably more covered thanks to some sort of jacket with a hood. When he didn't answer her right away, she looked up with an annoyed glare, which quickly turned to wide-eyed surprise.

"Y-you!" she exclaimed and jumped to her feet. The girl took a few steps back, her body tense and balanced on the balls of her feet. "Who the hell are you and what the hell am I doing here?! Again!"

Arthur's eyes narrowed.

"As you are the trespasser, I believe it is you who should announce yourself first," he said calmly, his left hand coming to rest on his sword. She noticed the movement and eyed his sword warily.

"I'm Dawn," she finally answered.

"Well then, Dawn, I suppose you're going to tell me you're lost again, are you?" he asked, mockingly. "I mean, it's perfectly understandable, Camelot is a large castle, after all. Although, it is rather odd how you seem to 'accidentally' wander into the most remote parts of the castle-"

"Woah, hang on a minute there!" Dawn waved her hands in a gesture to stop him. "I'm where now?!"

Arthur glared at the insolent girl. Perhaps he needed to stop being so lenient with Merlin, it seemed other people were getting ideas.

"You are in the corridors leading away from the chambers of the Crown Prince of Camelot."

"You're serious? I'm, like, really, honestly, no joke, in _Camelot_?!"

Arthur continued glaring at her.

"Wow, that's just so..." Dawn continued, not at all fazed by his Princely Glare of Doom. There was excitement colouring her voice now, like a small child who'd just been shown a whole room full of cake. "Wow. I can't believe it! Giles is going to be sooo jealous. And Xander and everyone too. I mean, I'm in Camelot and that's just... bad. Really, really bad." Arthur blinked. "I have no idea how I got here and I have no idea how to get back. Aarg, I hate Tuesdays!"

Now Arthur wasn't quite sure he wanted to try and arrest this girl on his own. She didn't seem altogether sane. Just then, he heard footsteps running towards them. However, his momentary elation was stunted when he recognized the gangly form of his manservant.

"Arthur!" the boy called, looking slightly worried.

He stopped running when he reached Dawn and watched her curiously as he slowly walked past her.

"Um, who's that?" he whispered to Arthur.

"Dawn," Arthur answered, as if that explained everything. And then again, as far as Arthur knew, it did.

Merlin didn't seem to agree with that assessment and flashed his master an annoyed look. Arthur fought to keep his expression blank instead of allowing himself to break into a gleeful grin. He loved pushing Merlin; he was the only person, who pushed back. Except for Morgana, but she was a girl and she cheated - how else could she possibly manage to turn everything against him?

"Actually, the two of you might manage to understand each other very well," Arthur continued, this time not bothering to keep the grin from his face. "You both seem to suffer from the same mental affliction."

"Um, Arthur..."

"At least, that's the conclusion I've come to. Clearly, this poor girl is either suffering from a horribly debilitating mental illness or she's-"

"-a sorcerer."

"Exactly." Arthur blinked and frowned. Then he stared at Merlin and blinked again. "Wait, what? What makes you think that?"

"Well, she seems to have disappeared."

Arthur's head snapped around to stare at the spot Dawn had been standing only moments ago. He cursed and unsheathed his sword before taking off down the corridor, Merlin at his heels. But once again, there was no sign of her anywhere.

Several corridors later, Arthur finally gave up looking for her. He abruptly turned to Merlin and grabbed him by the arm.

"You saw her too, right?" he asked, trying to ignore the desperation in his own voice. "She was definitely there; I'm not imagining things?"

"N-no, she was definitely there," Merlin answered, his eyes a bit wide in surprise. Arthur released his manservant and straightened himself as he sheathed his sword.

"Yes, of course she was."

For a moment neither of them spoke and an awkward silence filled the air around them. Then Merlin began to fidget with the hem of his tunic.

"So, are you, um... going to tell the king about her?" he asked quietly.

Arthur grimaced.

"Yes, I suppose I should," he said. "Magic is clearly involved. My father will want to hear of it. I shall want lunch in my chambers when I return."

"Yes, sire."

Arthur took a deep, fortifying breath and set off to see his father, hoping he could somehow make this whole thing sound less ridiculous.

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Hope you had as much fun reading that as I did writing it! Read and review please!

Oh, and if there's anyone interested, I'm without a beta reader for this story and would love one for future chapters when the plot (and yes, there is an actual plot even if you can't see it yet) starts developing and the chapters get longer and more complex - although nowhere near the epic proportions of some of my other fics (ie. Prophecy of the Four).


	3. Third Encounter

Well, I was hoping to get something out before the new year, so here it is! Sorry for the delay.

Thanks to everyone, who reviewed the first two chapters. And to my wonderful betas, _Gwen_ and _QueenMegaera_ for helping me make this chapter as good as it can be.

Disclaimer: Don't own _Buffy_ or _Merlin_ or anything in-between.

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**Key in the Kingdom**

**Third Encounter**

Arthur stormed through the halls of Camelot - his expression daring anyone to so much as breathe wrong - and felt a sort of twisted pleasure as the castle servants cowered away from him as he passed. Behind him, he was certain Merlin was running to catch up, smiling apologetically at everyone as he went. His manservant was very predictable.

So predictable, in fact, that Arthur knew, without a doubt, that the moment his chamber door closed behind them, Merlin would begin ranting about how he thought the king's criticism had been too harsh and undeserved. And then Arthur would have to snap at him, because a servant should never speak ill of the king - although secretly he'd be warmed by the mere thought that someone was willing to take his side even if it meant speaking ill of the king.

However, at the moment the two of them were still outside his chambers and his father's words still stung.

Two weeks. For two weeks Arthur had trudged through the kingdom of Camelot, looking for the mysterious sorceress named Dawn. At first, he'd managed to turn the witch hunt into a couple impromptu hunting trips, but his father had quickly caught on when they had venison two days in a row for dinner.

The real problem was that Arthur simply couldn't bring himself to take the whole thing seriously. He'd tried to explain to his father that he didn't believe this Dawn posed any threat to Camelot and, in fact, might not even be a sorceress at all - she simply seemed too confused and benign to have been the one actually casting the spell. Added to that were the strange clothes and accent. Even if she were a sorceress, she was clearly from somewhere very far away. Although, he conceded, she had certainly _heard_ of Camelot...

Arthur wished something would happen. A delegation from Mercia, a griffin attack, Morgana cutting all her hair off, _anything_ to turn his father's attention elsewhere. Heck, he'd even go find a unicorn to kill, if he didn't think that would actually create more problems than it would solve. In retrospect, he rather wished Merlin hadn't been there at the time, so he hadn't had to go tell his father about Dawn (although, Arthur belatedly realized, Merlin would've likely kept quiet had he only thought to ask...).

Finally, the two of them reached his chambers and Arthur flung the door open. He stormed in and froze, his anger shocked out of his blood by the image before him. Because there, sitting at his table, calmly asleep, her head pillowed on her arms and an open book, was Dawn.

"Um... Arthur?" Merlin asked cautiously.

Arthur scowled, his anger returning to him. This innocent-looking girl was the reason behind all his current misery. He stalked up to her, grabbed the edge of the book she was sleeping against and wrenched it out from under her.

Dawn made a sort of muffled yelp as her head unexpectedly hit the table. She blinked and sat up, frowning as she got her first bleary look at her surroundings.

"Hello," Merlin greeted cheerily. Arthur rolled his eyes. Dawn looked at them, blinked again, and then groaned.

"Oh my God, you have got to be kidding me," she practically whined. She took a deep breath. "Okay, there is no way this was me. I mean, hello, asleep here and who the hell spellcasts accidentally in their sleep?!"

"Aha!" Arthur exclaimed. "So you admit to being a sorcerer!"

Dawn stared at him.

"First of all, it would be sorceress, seeing as how I am very much a woman," she said. "And secondly, no, I didn't admit to being one."

She was looking at him with an expression that clearly read 'you are a colossal idiot and I wonder at how you manage to find your way out of bed in the morning' - he knew that look well, it was one he'd perfected for dealing with Merlin. Arthur took exception to having it used against him.

"Sorceress implies someone who's studied magic and knows what they're doing," Dawn continued. "Magic and me are on a strictly eye to page basis and never to become more unless the fate of the world depends on it and all other magic-type people are stuck in another dimension. Or have the plague." Now the young woman looked a bit sheepish. "I have a tendency to, uh... make things kind of, um, explode..."

Arthur stared at her. He wasn't quite sure what to say to that. Was the girl really this stupid?!

"But you _do _use magic, then?" Arthur asked, just to clarify.

"Arthur, she just said she's only ever _attempted_ magic," Merlin quickly interrupted. "I mean, if she really was a magic user then surely Camelot is that last place she'd be discussing her magic, seeing as how using magic is illegal and punishable by death."

Arthur turned to glare at his idiot of a manservant and therefore missed Dawn's wide-eyed look that said she'd in fact had no idea magic was illegal and punishable by death in Camelot. Merlin's smile was pure innocence.

"Well, in the end, it's easy enough to find the truth out," Arthur said with an air of superiority. He then held up the book he'd taken from Dawn earlier. "All we have to do is take a look at what she was reading."

He opened the book. Then he frowned. He turned the page and squinted at the print. There was something strange about the letters - apart from the fact that he couldn't read what they said. The print was so clean and uniform and... legible. There weren't even any ink stains on the pages! He wondered if this was, perhaps, the work of magic. He turned another page.

"There, see!" he exclaimed, pointing at a picture that took up the entire page triumphantly. "This is a magic book about summoning monsters such as this!"

Dawn snorted, apparently unimpressed with his brilliant deductions.

"Figured that out thanks to your flawless German, did you?" she asked.

Beside him, Merlin chuckled. Arthur flushed and then glared at the both of them to cover up his embarrassment.

"Then what exactly is this then?" he demanded, turning the book so that Dawn could see the monster on the page.

"It's a book on European water demons," she explained. "What they look like, where to find the, how to kill them, that sort of thing."

Oh, thought Arthur. Well, that actually sounded rather useful.

"You mean, this creature actually exists?' Merlin asked, a hint of fear in his voice.

"Um, yeah," said Dawn as she stood up and walked over to take a closer look. "This particular one is-" She paused and then suddenly snatched the book away from Arthur. "-is the exact same one that attacked us last night! The one I've been researching for hours! Arthur you are a genius!"

"Well, of course I am; I'm always brilliant," he answered automatically, even though he wasn't entirely sure why he was brilliant this time. "I'm also strong, courageous, handsome and otherwise generally perfect."

Dawn stared at him with a raised eyebrow. She turned to Merlin.

"Does he even know the meaning of the word 'modest'?" she asked.

"Not at all," said Merlin with a grin. Then he frowned as something suddenly occurred to him. "Wait, did you say you were attacked by that thing in the picture with more horns than any creature should ever be allowed to have on its head?"

"Yeah, luckily Faith had her sword with her, so no one got hurt, but it jumped in the river and got away," she said. "Sadly, Faith ain't much of a swimmer."

Arthur snorted. "Can't be as tough as it looks if a mere girl managed to overpower it," he said.

Dawn shot him an amused look, but said nothing.

"Maybe she used magic," Merlin suggested. Dawn's amused look turned into one of horror.

"God no," she said. "Faith and magic are totally non-mixy, not even to be used in the same sentence. We tried that once, having her help with a spell, I mean. She's got the attention span of a two-year-old on a sugar high. Unless she's got a sword and gets to kill things. She can concentrate on killing things."

"You don't happen to have a twin sister, do you?" Merlin asked Arthur with a straight face. Arthur glared at him, but didn't bother dignifying the comment with a response. Instead, he turned back to Dawn.

"So, now that you've found the creature, you'll send hunters out to kill it?" he asked.

"Something like that," said Dawn as she began to read the entry next to the picture. "This thing was pretty aggressive and we have to get rid of it before people start getting hurt. It's not exactly a common demon either, if it took me this long to find it. It's, um- Oh." Dawn paused, then frowned and reread the previous sentence. "It's native to Russia and doesn't normally attack humans, preferring smaller prey like dogs and cats instead. That would totally explain why I couldn't find anything about it."

"If it usually doesn't attack humans, then why did it attack you?" Arthur asked.

"Good question. Giles'll probably have some theories once I've shown him this."

Suddenly Dawn looked up with narrowed eyes and scanned the room.

"Umm..." she began cautiously, "is it just me or have I just been here longer than usual? That's assuming twice equals usual."

Arthur frowned.

"Yes, now that you've mentioned it," he said, thoughtfully. "You were only here for a few minutes before."

"So you really have no idea how or why you're appearing here?" Merlin asked, looking rather worried.

Dawn shook her head.

"Not a clue. I told Giles and he did some research, but then we got distracted with the bad-ass vamp wannabe who had the guts to go around calling himself William the Bloody." Suddenly, she looked at Merlin and cocked her head. "Which kinda reminds me that I actually have no idea who you are.."

"He's my manservant, of course," said Arthur, wondering if he needed to stop acting so informal around Merlin if people couldn't even figure out what he was supposed to be.

"I'm Merlin," said Merlin with a bright smile.

Dawn's eyes widened. Arthur frowned. The girl was gaping. At his manservant. He was confused. Why would a possible sorceress gape at his manservant? Did they not have manservants where she came from?

"You- you're _Merlin_?!" Dawn exclaimed. She'd stopped gaping, but now she was practically bouncing with excitement.

Merlin looked a bit nervous. Arthur didn't really blame him. He moved a bit closer and in front of Merlin, as if to at least partially shield him from the insane woman. Except that said woman seemed to suddenly become rather pale, translucent even. And then she was gone.

Arthur bounded to where she'd just been standing. He turned around in frustration and shared a disbelieving look with Merlin.

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Anyway, hope you all enjoyed it! Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Oh, and review please. =D


	4. Fourth Encounter

Sorry for the wait everyone! Computer issues and the lives of my betas were keeping me down.

Anyway, thanks to everyone, who reviewed, favourited or added this story to alerts! And to **Gwen **and **QueenMegaera**, who betaed this chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Or at least very little.

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**Key in the Kingdom**

**Fourth Encounter**

Arthur snickered as Merlin tripped over the hauberk he'd just stripped off of him and placed on the ground not two minutes ago. Nothing managed to lift his spirits after a rather dismal practice as watching Merlin trip over things – which usually included his own two feet and imaginary stones. Arthur idly wondered whether Merlin needed two extra feet to stabilize himself, or whether it would merely give him two extra feet to trip over.

An image of a four-footed Merlin flailing his arms as his feet tangled themselves together and sent him falling over in a knot of twitching limbs nearly made him giggle. Nearly, because – and regardless of what Merlin claimed Arthur did when he was drunk – princes simply did not giggle, let alone have giggle fits.

Merlin glared at the offending hauberk as he righted himself and moved it to the side, before returning to finish removing Arthur's armour. Arthur was sure he'd be tripping over it again within the next five minutes, but held his tongue. It was more fun that way.

Guinevere ran up to them just as Merlin had managed to remove the final piece (sadly, without tripping over anything else in the process).

"Sire," she panted, looking a bit alarmed, "Milady sent me to get you. She requests your presence in one of the lower courtyards."

"Oh does she now?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"

"We were just taking a walk around the castle when we saw a strange young woman and, well, she sort of seems to match your description of the sorceress. Or at least we think she does. I mean, she has long, brown hair and is thin and wearing very strange clothing, although really, she might as well not be wearing any at all. Not that I think she should be running around naked or anything, because that would be worse, although not really much worse than wearing what she's wearing right now. I suppose sorceresses are rather strange to begin with what with the magic and everything, but well the clothes were just-"

"Guinevere!" said Arthur sharply.

"Arthur, that sounds like Dawn!" Merlin said happily before Guinevere could launch into a string of apologies.

"Yes, Merlin, I know it does," Arthur snapped, rolling his eyes as he picked up his sword. Then he looked at the two servants expectantly. "Well, lead on then."

"Oh, of course, sire," said Guinevere with a slight bow before hurrying away. Arthur and Merlin followed.

Merlin managed to trip on the hauberk as they left. Arthur snickered.

How Dawn had managed to appear in what had to be the only deserted part of the castle courtyard, hidden behind some trees and a hedge of bushes, was a mystery Arthur couldn't be bothered contemplating. What Morgana and Guinevere had been doing there was considerably less of a mystery. He quirked an eyebrow at Morgana's very unladylike attire and the two swords she held in her arms. Morgana quirked an eyebrow back, daring him to say something. Arthur magnanimously decided to let it rest. This time. He had more important things to deal with.

He looked at Dawn. His brain stopped.

Seconds, minutes, possibly even hours later, Arthur realized something was shaking him.

"Arthur!" he heard Merlin calling him and turned to scowl at his manservant, who, it turned out, was also the one shaking him. He was also looking oddly annoyed for some reason, though Arthur was sure the one being manhandled was him.

Then he heard giggling. Arthur's eyes narrowed as he turned his attention to Morgana. Both she and Gwen were watching him with poorly-hidden amusement, hiding smiles behind their hands.

"Oh Arthur," said Morgana with a sweet smile Arthur's finely-honed instincts told him meant nothing good. "If Albion's sorcerers only knew all they had to do to distract you long enough to kill you was stick a half-naked woman in front of you, Camelot would surely be doomed."

Beside him, Arthur heard Merlin mutter something he didn't quite catch and couldn't be bothered to question him about. Morgana was the more dangerous one here. He scowled at her.

"I'm hardly in any danger at the moment," he said. "Besides, she just took me by surprise. I mean, look at what she's wearing!"

Which wasn't much, to be certain. If Arthur had thought what he'd first seen her in left nothing to the imagination, her current outfit (assuming it could even be called that) didn't even _need_ an imagination. All she was wearing on the upper part of her body was a scrap of light gray cloth that had two shoulder straps and covered her breasts (snugly), leaving the rest of her torso entirely exposed. Her breeches began at her hips and hugged her thighs, becoming looser about half-way down her calves, at which point it hardly mattered anymore.

"Perhaps she was getting ready for bed," Merlin suggested.

"She doesn't look like she's about to go to sleep," said Morgana.

In fact, Arthur couldn't quite figure out what she was doing. Her eyes were closed and she was moving slowly, smoothly, feet apart, arms in front of her and then sliding to the side as she stretched and shifted into a new position and then another. It was like a sort of very slow dance and despite its slowness, Dawn never stopped moving. She moved like a river on a calm, spring day: balanced and in-control of every movement. With a flash of inspiration, Arthur suddenly saw himself doing something similar while holding a sword and just like that, he realized what she was doing.

"It's control training for hand-to-hand combat," he said.

Morgana looked surprised for a few moments. "I've never seen hand-to-hand combat like that before," she said a bit sceptically.

"Neither have I."

"Why is she ignoring us?" Guinevere suddenly asked. "I mean, you don't think she's concentrating on some sort of magic spell, do you?"

"She's not actually a witch, Gwen," said Merlin. "At least she says she isn't. She just um, appears and disappears from time to time."

"She probably hasn't even realized she's here and not wherever it is she's supposed to be," Arthur added.

"Yes, that does appear to be the case," said Morgana, sending both boys a slightly annoyed look. "But what Gwen means, is why isn't she reacting to our presence. Surely, she's not deaf, is she?"

"Uh, no, she's not..." Arthur frowned at the girl. Morgana was right, no matter how much someone concentrated, strange voices were something anyone should notice.

"She seemed to have something in her ears," Merlin interrupted his musings. "See, there are strings coming out of them."

Arthur blinked and looked at her ears. Sure enough, two pink strings came out of her ears and joined together a small, blue rectangular object attached to the waistband of her breeches.

"Well, either way, we'd better wake her up before the castle guards come around," he said. Dawn had once more turned so that her back was facing them. Arthur walked up to her and clasped her shoulder.

"Dawn!" he called out as he grasped her shoulder to shaker her out of her stupor...

...and suddenly he was flat on his back, blinking up at the pretty blue, cloud-speckled sky (and, oh, that cloud over there looked a bit like a dragon...). He searched his head and seemed to remember a loud cry and a bit of a flying sensation.

"Oh gods, Arthur!"

He raised himself on an elbow and looked up to see Dawn staring at him with wide eyes, looking a bit worried. She yanked the strings out of her ears and fiddled with the thing at her hip. Somewhere behind them, he heard laughter.

"I am sooo sorry, I thought you were Spike or Andrew or one of the girls. Except that it's broad daylight so it couldn't be Spike and the girls would probably only interrupt for something important like the world's imminent implodement. So really, the only one it could've been is Andrew. He's been reaching new heights of annoying ever since he found out I was spontaneously showing up in Camelot. I swear I've seen every single Arthurian movie out there this past week and a half!"

As she babbled on, Arthur sat up and stared at her. He couldn't quite decide whether or not she was worse than Guinevere. Merlin came over and offered Arthur a hand up and the prince scowled at the amused twinkling in his manservant's eyes. But he took the offered hand and got to his feet. By the time he'd stood, Dawn had stopped babbling and was just watching him worriedly.

"Don't worry, he's fine," Merlin reassured her with a grin. "Maybe you've even managed to knock some of the pratishness out of him."

Dawn grinned back.

"Well, then that's my good deed for the day done."

"Well, at least we can now be certain she's not a sorcerer," Morgana commented and the three of them turned to her and Guinevere. They were both smiling. "If she was, you'd probably be a frog or a rat or something equally appropriate."

Arthur glared at her.

"Or hundreds of tiny pieces," Dawn added thoughtfully.

"Really?" Morgana asked, exchanging horrified expressions with Guinevere.

"Uh, well, I've never actually seen that happen, but I know Willow's done worse before and I've met a demon, who could make people sing and dance until they spontaneously combusted. So spell-that-makes-people-explode really wouldn't surprise me."

There were a few moments of silence following her statement and Arthur was wondering whether he should begin his questioning with 'Willow, who's done worse' or demon – it was a rather difficult decision.

"Well, you certainly sound like you lead an interesting life, Dawn," said Morgana.

Dawn shrugged.

"Interestingly life threatening, yeah. A day in my life would make most people run away and hide under their beds. By the way, you seem to know my name, but Arthur here seems to have forgotten to introduce you."

"Of course he has. I'm the King's ward, Morgana." Dawn's jaw dropped slightly as Morgana gestured to the girl next to her. "And this is my maidservant, Guinevere."

Guinevere smiled at Dawn, and Arthur couldn't help but notice that the excited twinkle in Dawn's eyes was the same as when she'd first met Merlin.

"Most people just call me Gwen. It's nice to meet you, especially since you're not actually a sorcerer. Not that that would make you a bad person, since you're from far away so maybe where you're from sorcerers aren't actually evil. I mean, there has to be some good magic out there somewhere too, right? To balance or something."

"Wow, that's - uh, I mean, it's very nice to meet you too," said Dawn. "And yeah, there are totally good magic users out there. Magic is all about balance. And consequences."

It was in this moment Arthur realized the gods must truly hate him: Dawn and Morgana were getting along.

"Well, it's not as though we don't have our fair share of magical creatures and sorcerers," Arthur interrupted. "And I've never met any that were trying to do good. I highly doubt you could know more about magic than we do."

"I don't' know, Arthur," Merlin just had to pipe. "That picture in Dawn's book didn't look like anything we've ever faced before."

Arthur glared at him.

"No, but have you forgotten the griffin and the afanc and then there were giant spiders and a lizard creature and plenty of evil sorcerers, and..." He trailed off, searching his brain for more things he'd faced in the past year. "Oh, and the druids!"

Morgana snorted.

"Oh, yes, the poor, ten-year-old child was certainly the embodiment of evil," she said.

"His name was Mordred, actually."

"Mordred? You met a boy named Mordred?!" Dawn exclaimed, her eyes wide and disbelieving as she stared at Arthur. "You're sure that was his name?"

"Absolutely! He told me so himself."

"And he's not, um, related to you in any way?"

"No, of course not! As if I'd have relations with anyone magical."

"Oh." Dawn paused, looking as though she were considering something. And really, Arthur wondered what the hell a druid boy had to do with anything. "I suppose that kinda confirms my theory, then. Which is good, I suppose."

"You think you know what's been happening to you?" Merlin asked.

Dawn nodded slowly. Her eyes darted between them, looking a bit nervous, as though she wasn't sure if she should be telling them.

"Well, I'm still clueless about the whole 'how and why' part, but I went all research girl and figured out that if nothing else, I'm probably not time travelling so much as dimension hopping. Which is definitely a plus. I think."

Arthur stared at the girl. He couldn't possibly have heard that right.

"Time travelling?" Morgana asked, confirming that there was absolutely nothing wrong with his hearing. "You thought you were _time travelling_?!"

Dawn winced. "Um, yeah?"

"How so?" Arthur asked, hoping no one else noticed how weak his voice sounded.

"Er, 'cause where I'm from, Camelot is part of history," she answered. "I mean, there's no exact date for the birth of Arthur Pendragon – plus there's this part where most historians can't actually agree whether or not he was a real person-"

"I am most definitely a real person!" Arthur protested in indignation. Of all the absurd allegations to make!

"Have they, at least, confirmed that he was a real prat?" Merlin asked.

"With the power to put insubordinate servants into the stocks," Arthur added with a pointed glare. Merlin grinned widely at him.

"Are you two quite done?" Dawn asked with her arms crossed and an annoyed look on her face.

"Sorry," said Merlin.

"Yes, you may continue," said Arthur. Dawn rolled her eyes.

"As I was saying, historians have dated Arthur to around the year 433 or so by some of the battles he's been said to have fought in-"

"Wait, this means my battle victories become great enough for people to remember them years later!" Arthur exclaimed.

"She never said they were victories," Morgana pointed out.

"Of course they were victories," Arthur responded.

"I'm from the year 2009," said Dawn loudly.

Then there was silence.

"You-you're from 1600 years in our future?" Merlin squeaked.

"Well, not your future exactly, but yeah."

"Well, that certainly explains the clothes," said Morgana.

"Y-you mean women walk around almost naked in the future?" Guinevere asked with wide eyes.

Dawn blinked at her and then looked down at herself.

"Huh? Oh. Oh no, I mean, these are normal clothes, but not something I'd wear out to shop in or walk the dog or anything. They're for exercising. I was in the back garden doing my tai chi routine."

Gwen visibly relaxed at her words.

"Oh good, because it seems a bit indecent. N-not that I'm implying that you have loose morals or anything. I mean you seem very nice and high-moraled, but well, your outfit doesn't really leave much to the imagination and if this is what a woman wears then I can only imagine what a man would wear. Not that I'm imagining half-naked men walking around or anything-"

"Gwen," Morgana interrupted with a smile that was trying very hard not to turn into a laugh. "Breath."

Arthur wondered, not for the first time, how the girl managed to say all of that without taking a breath.

"Dawn?" Merlin suddenly asked, looking thoughtful (Arthur braced himself – Merlin and thoughtful was never a good combination and quite likely to cause things – such as the world – to implode if he did it too thoroughly). "So, the time travelling is rather obvious, since the future is probably quite different, but how can you be sure that you're, um, hopping?"

"Oh, because the legends are too different from the reality here."

"Legends?" Arthur perked up. "Now I'm a legend?"

He smirked. The Legendary King Arthur Pendragon: he rather liked the sound of that.

"A legendary prat most likely," said Merlin.

Arthur magnanimously decided to ignore the jibe. As a legend, he could afford to.

"Sorry guys," said Dawn to the others. "I didn't mean to feed his ego."

"Don't worry, Dawn," Morgana assured her. "It doesn't take much. Just ignore him and continue."

"Got it. Well, if it helps one of the hugest differences is that Arthur here's actually the Crown Prince. In my versions, he's Uther's bastard son raised in secret, or an orphan after Uther and Igraine Pendragon were killed when he was a baby and he was sneaked out of Camelot. Either way, in the legends Arthur is never crowned prince and is usually totally clueless about his royal blood."

"Oh, so maybe's your version was a kind, considerate, likeable person," said Merlin thoughtfully.

Arthur glared at him. "You realize your tone is completely inappropriate of a servant towards his master. Not to mention, that I'm a legend."

"So's he," said Dawn.

"I am?"

"He is?!" Arthur blinked and then proceeded to roar with laughter. "Oh, but of course, Merlin, only you would become legendary as the world's worst manservant!"

"Uh, yeah, that would the other huge difference in the legends," Dawn said sheepishly. Then she paused. "Well, other than the Mordred thing, but that's opening up a whole new and weird set of spoilers we are so not getting into. But anyway, Merlin, according to my legends, was – first of all – way older than Arthur, like grandfather-age older, and worked for Uther Pendragon as an, um... an adviser. And Merlin was the only one, who knew about Arthur's existence. He's also the guy who took Arthur to Camelot to prove himself king."

"If Merlin was the only one, who knew the truth then how exactly did Arthur prove himself to be Uther's son?" Morgana asked.

"He pulled the sword from the stone," said Dawn. Then she grinned as she leaned backwards with her hands behind her back like a devious canary, waiting to see, who would pounce first.

"That doesn't make any sense," said Guinevere. "How could a sword prove anything? Unless it had the royal seal on it, I suppose. But any knight in Camelot could have one of those."

"Okay, so there was this sword sticking out of a stone and on the stone was an inscription saying that whoever pulls the sword from the stone shall be the rightful king of Albion. A bunch of lords and knights and peasants tried to pull the sword out, but it didn't budge. Until Arthur showed up and pulled it out."

As Dawn spoke, Arthur suddenly felt as though there were something pulling him away, as if a thousand voices suddenly whooshed past him, momentarily stealing his breath away as they passed by in a whirlwind of sensation. And out of the sudden rush of voices, only two words rang clearly in his mind: king, destiny. He blinked and the voices fell silent. Arthur gulped, feeling a bit shaky. Destiny was a powerful word and in that moment, he felt its full burden. He was crown prince, therefore it made sense he'd one day be king, but even in that he'd had to prove himself worthy. This feeling, those voices, seemed to be laying something grander before him than a simple inheritance, a king's decree.

Quickly, he looked to Merlin, expecting a familiar jibe about how he was certainly destined to be the greatest King of Prats Albion had ever seen, but Merlin wasn't laughing. His eyes were serious and he was listening to Dawn as though her words were simple confirmation of truth, not a revelation. And then, in his mind's eye, Arthur saw his manservant standing in the dim candlelight of his chambers, looking worn-out and a bit twitchy – a shadow of grief in his solemn eyes. He could smell the herbs in the poultice Gaius had put on his shoulder to help the Questing Beast's bite. But, most importantly, he could hear the quiet, determined voice of his manservant as he told him he would be a great king.

Arthur swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry.

"Did the sword have a name?" asked Merlin and Arthur blinked back into reality. What an odd question...

"Not sure, I think this was really just an ordinary sword. Er, well, at least as ordinary as any sword that's magically stuck inside a rock can be. Though, Arthur did have a special sword that's pretty much as legendary as he is. He got it from the Lady of the Lake. At least, I think he got it from her... I know it came from the lake in any case."

Arthur was watching Merlin at that moment, so he didn't miss his manservant's sharp intake of breath or how his eyes widened for a moment, before he could school his expression. Arthur frowned.

"It's name," Dawn began, "was-"

"Dawn!" Morgana cried.

Arthur blinked.

"Why in the world would I name a sword-" Then he noticed the empty space. "Oh. Damn. I actually wanted to hear about my spectacular sword."

Morgana glared at him, Merlin looked exasperated and Guinevere just looked amused.

* * *

The next chapter will be up as soon as I get it back from my betas! In the meantime, please read and review this one. =D


	5. Fifth Encounter

Thanks to everyone, who reviewed the last chapter and to** QueenMegaera** for betaing this one!

Disclaimer: I own the plot, but little else.

* * *

**Key in the Kingdom**

**Fifth Encounter**

"Oh, it must've been absolutely horrid," Lady Gisele exclaimed, a hand daintily placed over her mouth in an expression of gentile horror. "I surely would've swooned in fright at the very sight of such a beast." Then she smiled and batted her eyelashes. "It only proves your bravery and swordsmanship that you managed to survive."

"Ah, yes, well. I'm afraid I was rather unconscious for most of it..." Arthur replied, trying his best to appear thoroughly engrossed in the conversation and not like he wished another magical beast would suddenly burst into the dinning hall and try to kill him.

He never thought he'd get tired of talking about his glorious victories in battle, however the world seemed utterly determined to prove him wrong. Or perhaps it was simply that he wished people would go back to talking about his _actual_ heroic deeds. But no, everyone kept going on and on about that blasted Questing Beast, which he, quite frankly, didn't even remember killing. And even he was humble enough to realize his recovery from its poison was due to whatever Gaius had managed to concoct rather than any valiant efforts on his own part.

Though, Gwen kept stressing that it was Merlin, who'd fetched the antidote that had eventually saved his life. Which probably meant he'd gone to collect the herbs needed, because Gaius couldn't leave Arthur's side.

There were still several things about the whole incident that kept nagging at him. Somehow, Arthur knew he hadn't gotten the full, true story from Merlin. His mysterious 'don't be a prat' speech had sounded too much like a good-bye for Arthur's comfort, but then he'd found out that Hunnith was in Camelot and gravely ill. So ill that both Gaius and Merlin had gone out to get whatever it was they'd needed to get in order to cure her. And Arthur was most certainly not stupid enough to believe they'd been gathering ordinary, everyday herbs - they both returned to Camelot amidst a horrible storm, with Merlin looking like he was three steps away from knocking on Death's door. He'd spent an entire day in bed and seemed so overjoyed to have his mother well again (according to Gwen, it had looked very bad), that Arthur simply didn't have the heart to ruin his mood.

He did, however, notice the shadow that lived permanently in Merlin's eyes, whenever he thought no one was looking. But the time to enquire about exactly what had happened with the Questing Beast had passed and Arthur wasn't quite sure how to bring up the conversation again.

Arthur brought his attention back to Lady Gisele, who was still singing his praises and simpering foolishly (well, she would've been simpering had she been anything less of a lady of the court). He reached for his goblet with the hopes that more wine would make her more tolerable, only to discover it was empty.

He scowled and looked behind him. Quite predictably, Merlin was completely ignoring his duties in favour of gossiping with Gwen. At the moment, he was smirking mischievously as he said something to the maidservant, which had her giggly madly, a hand over her mouth in a poor attempt to hide it.

"Merlin!" Arthur called, glaring at his errant manservant.

Merlin looked up in surprise, as if he'd completely forgotten Arthur was there. Arthur raised his goblet and turned it upside down. Merlin blinked and then scurried over.

"I've heard rumours about this atrocious manservant of yours," Lady Gisele commented, her eyes full of disdain. "I don't understand why you tolerate such incompetence, your highness."

"He's quite amusing at times," said Arthur. "And his mental deficiency isn't entirely his fault."

"Oh, how noble of you, sire!"

Arthur noticed Merlin rolling his eyes as he reached for his goblet.

"Further down the table," he whispered, leaning over slightly as he poured the wine. "It seems Lady Ilana has discovered her husband's infidelity."

Arthur blinked at the seemingly random comment. He looked up at Merlin, who winked, a hint of the same mischievousness Arthur had seen him share with Gwen earlier. He finished pouring the wine and then retreated with a smile and a slight bow - pretending to look like a proper manservant. Until he bumped into Lord Eldred's manservant. Arthur smirked as Merlin stumbled through a sheepish apology as the older man looked at him as though he were a pair of dirty socks.

As he turned away, Arthur decided he didn't particularly like Lord Eldred's servant. Then he took a drink of wine and stole a glance down the table. Lady Ilana of Suffolk was easily spotted: she was tall and of sturdy build, feminine in a way that was decidedly indelicate. Arthur had always found her fierce, half-Norman features rather beautiful in an unconventional way.

At the moment, Lady Ilana sat rigidly straight, speaking to no one and focusing solely on the roast pheasant in front of her. She was especially ignoring her husband, Lord Henry of Suffolk, who seemed to be trying to offer her some figs with a wide smile - one that Arthur was sure, by the man's reputation, was usually used to entice servant girls into his bed. Lady Ilana was not being charmed. Arthur used his goblet to hide his amusement at the beautifully dark bruise colouring Lord Henry's right cheek, just below the eye. And the matching bruising on Lady Ilana's knuckles.

Arthur turned around slightly in his chair and met Merlin's eyes. He tipped his goblet at him as a sign of acknowledgement and Merlin's face lit up with one of his silly grins.

Then Arthur brought his attention back to Lady Gisele and her not-nearly-as-amusing prattle with a warm feeling in his chest. Suddenly he felt like he wouldn't die of boredom by the end of the evening.

This feeling persisted as the doors to the banquet hall burst open. He automatically leant backwards in the chair in order to see what was going on, only to nearly fall over as he saw a familiar figure in very familiar unfamiliar clothes hurriedly slamming the doors shut again. He cursed as he leapt to his feet.

Arthur was sure he could hear the gods of the Old Religion laughing at him.

He ran to her, ignoring his father's and his knights' shouts. The guards at the doors looked rather perplexed as to what they should be doing. Arthur motioned for them to stay back for now. Then he took in Dawn's appearance and his eyes widened as he noticed the blood staining the left side of her breeches and the bloody tear on the lower part of her dark green shirt, just visible beneath the sack she was wearing on her back. She was leaning against the door, panting heavily and hadn't yet turned around to see the room.

"Dawn!" Arthur called.

Dawn tensed and whirled around, wincing slightly before her eyes widened comically wide.

"Ar-Arthur?!" she said. She didn't look any better off from the front than she had from the back. He could, however, now see the nasty-looking gash on her left thigh, which had caused the blood on her breeches. Her clothes were covered in grime and her bare arms had several bloody scratches and newly-formed bruises on them.

Dawn suddenly seemed to notice the rest of the hall behind Arthur. Her eyes suddenly filled with horror.

"Oh no, no, no, no, this is bad," she said. She gripped her sack more tightly. "Shit, this is bad. Buffy's waiting for me to-"

"Arthur, what is the meaning of this?!" Uther demanded, startling Arthur with how close it was coming from. "Who is this woman?"

Arthur cursed silently and turned to face his father, who was now standing behind him with a stone-hard look on his face. Arthur cleared his throat.

"Father, this is the woman I've been encountering within Camelot," he said. "This is Dawn."

He now turned sideways so he could look to Dawn at the same time as his father, only to notice the girl wasn't paying any attention to him at all. Instead, she seemed frozen to the spot, gaping at his father. Then she blinked.

"F-father?" she asked quietly and then met Arthur's eyes. "As in your father, the king? _This_ is Uther Pendragon?"

Arthur frowned and then nodded. Why was it so strange? Did the kings in the future look differently?

"Wow." Dawn returned to staring at his father (who seemed to have just about reached his limit in being stared at). "I know we called it the Land of Giles, but..."

"Dawn!" Morgana suddenly shouted. Arthur turned around to see her run past him and up to Dawn. "What in the world happened to you?!"

"What is the meaning of this?!" Uther's voice thundered through the hall. Arthur cringed, trying to figure out a way to salvage the situation without all of them spending the next week in the dungeons. "Arthur, am I to understand that all of you have been hiding this sorceress and allowing her to go as she pleases through Camelot?"

"That sounds like I have a choice in the matter," Dawn muttered.

Uther glared at her. She wasn't fazed. Arthur couldn't believe he'd actually met someone stupider than Merlin.

"Um, sorry, but does anyone else hear that?" Merlin's nervous voice suddenly cut through the tense silence.

Arthur frowned, glancing at his manservant, who had shuffled into place beside him a few moments ago.

"Hear what?" he asked at the exact same time Dawn said: "Oh damn."

Arthur looked back to Dawn, who was standing frozen with wide eyes and a slightly panicked expression on her face. Then Arthur heard it too. The grunting and sniffing and almost-soft growling reminded him a bit of one of his hunting dogs. Only bigger. And on the other side of the doors.

Arthur sprang into action. He motioned to one of the guards stationed by the doors to help him and together they quickly slid the wooden beam that supported the locked doors into place. No sooner had they finished, the doors shook as the creature on the other side nudged at them.

"Don't suppose this room has a rather convenient back door, does it?" Dawn suddenly asked.

"Of course it does," Morgana answered without hesitation. "It's behind the tapestry to the right of the throne."

"Then you should really start working on getting everyone through it, 'cause that thing is big and bloodthirsty and possibly quite mad and starving after being sealed under a rock for the past four hundred some odd years." There was a bang and the doors shook more violently this time. "Also, those doors aren't going to last for too long once it gets serious about breaking them down."

"Silence sorcerer!" Uther roared, furious at being so easily forgotten. "Do not even think to give orders in this hall!"

"Oh, for the last bloody time, I am not a fucking sorceress!" Dawn yelled right back, eyes blazing as she met the king's gaze. "I am, however, the girl who spent the last three days researching this damn thing and therefore not only know what it is, but also how to kill it."

"My Lord," said Morgana gently, placing a placating hand on the king's arm, "if nothing else, it will be easier for Arthur and his knights to kill the beast if they are not being distracted by the guests."

The king's glare didn't lessen, but he did nod in agreement. He covered Morgana's hand with his own and squeezed slightly.

"You are right, of course," he said. He released her hand and turned to the rest of the room. "Guards! Escort our guests out of the hall through the passageway."

Arthur took that as his cue to move his own troupes. While his father explained the situation to the array of courtiers and visiting nobles, Arthur called for his knights. There was a sudden flurry of movement as they responded to his call. When they finally all stood before him, Arthur cursed silently as he realized several of them were swaying a bit to the side and, while they all had their swords, none of them were actually dressed for battle.

He sent the swaying knights off to help the guards. Then he turned back to Dawn, who was looking rather amused at the proceedings. But the door creaked behind her and the amusement disappeared from her face. She spared a single glance at the door, before rushing to Arthur's side.

"Right, so this beast," she began quickly. "First off, it's got a bunch of eyes-"

"A bunch of eyes?" Arthur deadpanned. "What exactly-"

"You'll seen really soon, now pay attention!" Dawn looked annoyed, but her eyes moved back to the door, watching it.

"What manner of beast have you unleashed upon Camelot?!" Arthur and Dawn both jumped, neither one of them having noticed Uther's approach. "You will tell me how to defeat it sorcerer or I will have your head."

Dawn blinked at him and opened her mouth to say something, but then simply closed it and shook herself. She took a deep breath.

"Look," she began, "I didn't summon anything. It was a bunch of idiot law students, who thought- and you know what, that's not even the point right now! This argument can totally wait until the thing is dead!"

Uther apparently had no argument with her logic, because he remained silent. Dawn turned back to Arthur.

"Okay, so as I was saying, it's got a bunch of eyes - and I'm saying 'a bunch' because I never actually took the time to count them on account of the even more plentiful and very sharp teeth! Anyway, the eyes are its weakness, you can hit it there and it will hurt. The rest of its body is covered in spikes and scales. If you can aim between the spikes you can also hurt it. Also, don't bother with the soft underbelly approach; Xander tried that already and it doesn't have one." She took a deep breath. Arthur couldn't help but marvel at how long she'd manage to keep talking for before needing one.

Just then the doors shook violently. Arthur's eyes widened as a claw came through the door, getting stuck about half-way down. Someone gasped. Arthur was about to call for the knights to get into formation, when Dawn suddenly grabbed his arm.

"Now, this part's especially important, so pay really close attention." Her eyes bore into his and he froze: was there something worse about this creature he was already not looking forward to meeting?! "Distract it, hurt it, but whatever you do, don't kill it."

"What?!" Uther hissed and Arthur exclaimed at the same time. Dawn glared at both of them.

"Unless the beast is killed in a very specific way, then on the next full moon it will rise out of the remains of its own scattered blood. It might even rise in multiples - we weren't entirely sure of the translation on that one. And before you ask, yes, I do actually know how to kill it so that it dies properly in the 'never coming back' way, but it takes some time to prepare the weapon. I'll be doing that while you be brave, strong knights and play decoy."

She let Arthur go and turned her attention to those behind him.

"Merlin, Morgana, I'm going to need your help. You in?"

"Of course, anything you need," Morgana answered immediately.

Merlin just nodded, looking pale, but determined. He and Morgana followed Dawn as she headed towards the back of the room, where the fireplace was merrily burning despite the ravenous beast just outside the room.

"Your majesty," Arthur addressed his father, "you should probably leave this to us."

Uther looked towards the door just as it splintered inwards, the top half of it ripped open as if it hadn't been made of solid oak. He nodded silently, but unsheathed his sword as he backed out of the way.

"Knights into formation!" Arthur called out. "Surround the door. Aim at the eyes and in-between the spikes, but don't kill it!"

Arthur himself took up the central position, facing the splintering door head-on. Looking through the new clawed-through openings in the door, he saw something move in the corridor. Then it stopped and peeked into the room.

He immediately understood what Dawn had meant by 'a bunch' of eyes. Three large, red eyes stared at him through the large crack in the door and surrounding them several smaller, purple eyes kept blinking in and out of existence. Arthur couldn't see the beast's whole face, but he imagined counting the eyes would prove very difficult indeed when combined with sharp teeth.

The creature then seemed to step back a bit and let out a massive roar, which echoed through the banquet hall and made the doors shake slightly. It also gave Arthur a rather good view of its large teeth and - Arthur did a double take, jaw falling slightly as he realized it had _two sets of teeth_!

Arthur tightened his grip on his sword and steeled his resolve. He sort of missed the griffin right now. Just then someone tapped him on the shoulder. He glanced behind him and scowled in annoyance at his manservant.

"Dawn said to also watch out for the tail," Merlin said quickly.

Arthur blinked. "What? What is that supposed to-?!"

Another deafening roar interrupted Arthur, diverting his attention back to the door. He was just in time to see the remaining parts of the massive doors reduced to ineffective splinters.

The hall seemed to be holding its breath as the beast casually stepped over the debris and walked into the room.

Arthur found himself wishing he wasn't a prince and born leader of men - wished he could just let out a high-pitched scream and run away. That would not, however, be setting a very good example for his knights. Plus, Merlin and Morgana would never let him live it down.

As he saw the beast fully for the first time, Arthur realized that Dawn's description, although rather vague, had been quite accurate. The beast had a round head that reminded him of a dog, except for the eyes, and several rings of spikes protruding from behind its head, circling it like a very long, pointy mane. It had short, thick neck covered in scales. The scales were a dull purple-grey colour and covered most of the beast's body, including the belly. Three rows of spikes (the middles one dark purple and the others blue) ran along its spine and then down its tail. Arthur noticed the scales did, in fact, end at the base of the outer row of spikes. It would, however, take someone very tall to land a blow there.

Although, he realized with some satisfaction, it seemed someone had managed just that if the odd-looking metallic staff jutting out from between the rows of spikes was any indication. And, closer to the neck, there was a sword hilt sticking out of the creature.

The beast took a few more steps into the hall and the slight 'clacks' in its steps brought Arthur's attention to very, very, long, curved claws. Then he looked at the beast's face, only to realize with a start that it was staring back. With every single one of its eyes. He gulped and held the gaze, refusing to lose to the beast.

As he held the beast's gazes, he noticed that even here the creature wasn't unharmed. Two of its eyes were crusted over with blood, one partially open and the other not at all. The eyelid on the closed eye was split apart with a gash that looked like it could've come from a sword. Arthur gripped his sword with a renewed determination fuelled with hope that stemmed from knowing the thing could be harmed.

Just as suddenly as it had met Arthur's gaze, the beast's eyes suddenly looked at something behind him. It sniffed the air. Arthur, too, realized he could smell something burning - like herbs and something else. The beast's eyes narrowed and it roared again, before crouching down slightly.

Arthur knew that was bad.

"Knights, attack!" he bellowed and then charged towards the beast himself.

The beast jumped back slightly as Arthur swung his sword at its eyes. The surprised expression on its face might's been comical had it not had the ability to turn Arthur into two half-Arthurs with a single, lazy swipe of its paw. Which it tired, but the prince ducked and rolled out of the way.

The other knights didn't hesitate in filling the gap left by their prince and fell upon the beast like a pack of hunting dogs upon a prize stag. Except without as much success. Just as Dawn had said, their weapons slid off the scales without leaving so much as a single scratch.

Sir Belvedere attempted to prevent the beast's head from moving by engaging the spikes around its neck with his sword and Sir Gawain did the same on the other side. Which worked only until the beast turned its head and sent the both of them tumbling to the ground.

However, they bought Arthur enough time for him to be able to circle around the knights and come up behind them to charge the creature as it was distracted. His sword slid neatly into its left, large eye.

The beast roared in pain and Arthur's sword was wrenched out of his hands as it thrashed its head. It reared up onto its hind legs, claws swinging around wildly, before landing back down with such force that the entire hall shook. Its left paw came up to swipe at its eye in a vain attempt to dislodge the sword.

"Finish it!" Arthur cried.

From seemingly nowhere, Sir Kay rushed forward with a spear (it looked like it belonged to one of the castle guards) and stabbed the beast at the base of the neck, between the rows of spikes. Once again, the beast howled in pain as it thrashed to the side. Sir Kay easily leapt out of the way of flailing spikes.

"The tail! Watch out for the tail!"

Arthur looked up as he heard the female voice call out and was just in time to watch the beast raise its massive, tree-trunk-sized tail and swing it towards the knight, who'd just impaled its neck. The spikes on the end of the tail were bigger than any of the ones on its body.

"Sir Kay, duck!" he called in alarm.

Unfortunately, Sir Kay looked at Arthur instead and then the tail made impact. The knight screamed as a spike drove through the left side of his torso, before he went flying through the air, toppling several others as he landed.

Arthur really hoped Dawn knew what she was doing and hoped she didn't disappear before finishing it.

Automatically, he reached for his sword and then cursed when he realized it was still lodged in the beast's left eye. With a quick glance to the left, Arthur grabbed the first large, heavy object he could find and charged at the beast. The chair shattered as he bashed it over the beast's head. The beast blinked at him and then shook its head, looking a bit dazed.

"Arthur!" he heard Merlin call.

Arthur quickly darted out of the beast's reach and looked towards his manservant, who was hurrying towards him carrying a wall tapestry (it was the ugly one Lord Cambrey had given his father years ago as a birthday gift and therefore had to hang in the banquet hall in order to not insult the wealthy and influential lord).

"Here," said Merlin, as he threw him one end of the tapestry, "Morgana tore it down. Dawn's almost done, but we need to hold the beast still for as long as possible."

Arthur looked back to where his knights were darting around the beast like a pack of hounds, skilfully avoiding its claws, teeth and tail. Except for Sir Conrad, who'd just gotten his throat ripped out as he stumbled over a pile of chicken bones.

Arthur clenched the tapestry tighter.

"Sir Belevedere, keep it distracted!" he called out to the man he counted amongst his best knights.

Sir Belvedere looked quizzedly at the tapestry they were holding, but nodded in acknowledgement, apparently assuming his prince had a plan - an assumption Arthur only wished he could make. Sir Belvedere called to Sir Godfrey, one of the younger knights, and together they began to dart around each other and in front of the beast in a series of impressive-looking feints. Arthur made a note to compliment the younger knight on his footwork. Later. For now, he took a deep breath.

"On my mark, Merlin," he said quietly, as if the beast could understand him and thus foil his - well really Morgana's - plan. He could feel the air move as Merlin nodded his head vigorously. Arthur watched the beast.

"Now!" he exclaimed as the beast snapped its jaws at Sir Godfrey.

He ran ahead, to the far side of the beast, and threw the tapestry over its head and then pulled it tightly, so that it covered all the eyes. Merlin did the same on his end. For a moment, everything was silent.

"Grab the spikes on the side of its head," Arthur ordered his knights. Several knights quickly complied. The creature let out a panicked scream and began to thrash.

"Sir Belvedere, the tail!" Arthur called out.

Sir Belvedere heard his liege over the screams of the beast and did what must've been the first thing he thought of. He shrugged off his jacket and flung it over the end of the beasts tail before practically flinging himself on top of it (or as much as he could with all those spikes in the way). Arthur nearly rolled his eyes. He'd have to speak to his knights later about how _not_ reacting in a manner reminiscent of his manservant.

"Arthur!"

Arthur looked up to meet the wide eyes of said manservant... who was staring at the place where the tapestry was ripping. Arthur's eyes also widened.

"Dawn!" he called, his voice sounding more high-pitched than he would've liked. "Do you suppose you'll be ready anytime soon?!"

"We're ready, now hold it as still as you can!" Dawn called back, sounding much closer than he remembered her being.

He glanced back to watch Dawn approach with Morgana and his father - who had a familiar frown on his face, which meant he highly disapproved of the whole thing. Arthur couldn't help but be amused at the thought of his father being overruled by the two women. Then the beast attempted to rear up again and all thoughts left Arthur's mind as he grit his teeth and held onto the tapestry with all his strength.

"I am Morgana of Camelot," Morgana's voice suddenly rang through the hall, "and I bind you with my words."

The beast stilled so suddenly, Arthur nearly lost his balance. Despite still being partially covered by the tapestry, he could see all its eyes focus on the king's ward. He looked to Morgana again, to see that she had stepped in front of Dawn and Uther, holding a silver, ornate short sword in front of her. His father had his sword drawn and ready and Dawn was holding one of the silver goblets from the banquet table.

Suddenly, the beast roared, crouching down, before leaping forward. The tapestry tore. Arthur and Merlin stumbled backwards and bumped into the knights, who'd been holding the spikes at the beast's head.

"Morgana! Dawn!" Arthur called out as he scrambled to regain his balance. He watched the beast's movements with wide eyes, knowing full well that swordless and this far behind the thing's head, he couldn't do anything.

And then Dawn darted forward and threw the contents of her goblet into the beast's face. The beast paused. Then it screamed in pain, rearing up on its hind legs as it thrashed its head.

With a mighty battle cry, Morgana lunged at the beast, burying the sword into its breast. Arthur had by now reached her and couldn't help but stare in confusion as the sword slide through the impenetrable scales as though they were nothing but the skin on a roast pheasant.

All was still for a few moments. The beast stood on its hind legs as though frozen by the sword. Suddenly, a wind swept through the hall as the beast began to literally disintegrate before Arthur's eyes, pieces of it falling away like grains of sand. The wind picked up the grains and blew them once around the beast's head and then towards Morgana and the short sword, where they seemed to disappear into the hilt. Morgana pulled the sword out, but the whirlwind of beast dust didn't stop, just slightly changed directions. Arthur barely noticed Morgana's awed expression as he was too busy being amazed himself - standing guard in case the beast suddenly began attacking again, that is.

It was, really, rather amazing to watch.

Several minutes later, the beast was gone. Two swords, the guard's spear, an arrow and the metal tube (which looked even less identifiable to Arthur now that it was no longer embedded in the beast) clanged to the floor.

Dawn ran forward and snatched up the arrow (Arthur frowned as he realized it looked quite unlike any arrow he'd ever seen before) and the sword that wasn't Arthur's. She turned back to them with the weapons in-hand, before smiling sheepishly when she realized they were all watching her.

"Sorry, weapons are expensive and Buffy really liked this sword," she said.

"So, the beast is dead now then, is it?" Arthur asked.

"As dead as it's going to get, yeah," Dawn answered.

"What do you mean?" Uther demanded. "If it isn't dead, then we should destroy it!"

"Uh, well, it was never a real creature to begin with, so killing it completely is kinda hard. I mean, obviously it exists, 'cause you fought it and all, but it was kind of, um, created-"

"It is a product of sorcery, you mean," said Uther. His eyes were narrowed and he was glaring at the short sword Morgana was still holding as she examined it anew.

"Well, a curse actually..." She paused. "Okay, yeah, I guess you could call it sorcery. Story goes, it's the spirit of a great Hindu warrior, who betrayed his lord for money. He cut off his master's head and then used the same sword to slaughter all his children and wives. Except for the head wife, who was very beautiful and he was in love with. He raped her, but left her alive. Which was a really bad move on his part, 'cause as she lay on the ground bleeding, she called upon Kali, the goddess of destruction. Kali felt the woman's anger and entered into her, allowing her to appear before the warrior. Assuming I got the translation right, what she said to him was something along the lines of: 'You are not a warrior. Your actions are not those of a man, but of a beast, a dog. Yet even beasts know who their masters are, even dogs are loyal. Your soul is twisted, a perversion and so it shall remain for eternity, cursed and bound by the words of a woman.' And so the warrior's soul was ripped out of his body and became the beast. Twenty years later, a priest of some sort came along and defeated the beast, sealing it into the same sword the warrior had used to kill his lord. Then the priest had the sword encased into the bottom of a statue of the god Balrama."

There were a few moments of silence.

"Oh, well that's new," said Merlin. Arthur raised an eyebrow at him and his manservant hurried to elaborate. "I mean, we don't usually get a story along with the scary magical creatures we - I mean, you - defeat. They're usually just angry for some reason or no reason or whatever."

Dawn laughed.

"Lucky you. We usually get a story, or prophecy or something. Often about how the world's going to explode, or implode, or get turned into a hell demon's party paradise or whatever, depending on how creative the Big Bad of the week is."

Arthur blinked.

"That only proves that magic is dangerous and should be destroyed," said Uther firmly.

Instead of arguing, like Arthur was expecting her to, Dawn merely shrugged.

"Yeah, sometimes it is," she said. "And sometimes using it is the only way to protect people, to keep them safe from other evil."

Juggling the weapons she was already carrying, Dawn reached out to take the sword from Morgana.

"Here, I'd better take this and make sure it gets sealed back into the statue." She turned to Arthur. "And I'll talk to Giles - and maybe Willow too. We really need to figure out what's going on and why I'm shifting dimensions, 'cause this is getting way dangerous."

"So you still have no idea why this is happening?" Merlin asked quietly.

Dawn shook her head. "Nope, not a clue. I mean, to be fair, between Russian water demon, a stray werewolf, running off to the middle of nowhere Wales to gather up a possible new recruit, and now this lovely dino-dog thing, we've kinda had our hands full."

"Arthur," his father suddenly interrupted the conversation in his level, calm-before-the-storm voice, "why is it that you, Morgana and even your manservant, seem to be on rather friendly terms with a woman, who is wanted for sorcery. I don't recall being informed of her presence in the castle, let alone of any attempts to apprehend her."

Arthur exchanged quick looks with Merlin and Morgana. Damn, that was a good question. He straightened himself and met his father's gaze.

"Oh!" Merlin suddenly gasped. Arthur took a few moments to glare at his wide-eyed manservant, who was staring stupidly at... an empty space. It took him a few moments to figure out why the boy would be staring at empty space.

"She's gone," he said and then cursed himself silently for stating the obvious like some sort of mentally deficient - like Merlin, really.

"What?!" Uther roared. "Where is she?"

"I'm afraid we don't know, my lord," Morgana answered gently. "This is what happened last time as well. She just suddenly disappeared as quickly as she'd appeared. In fact, if I recall correctly, last time she'd even been in the middle of a sentence."

Uther seemed to consider this. Arthur cleared his throat, hoping he could take advantage of his father's deliberation.

"It's true, father," he said. "From what I've observed, she doesn't seem to be the one controlling her, um, transportation to Camelot. In fact, the first time I met her, she didn't even seem to know where she was. She claims to be from another world altogether, although I have a hard time believing such an outrageous thing. Whoever is transporting her here is likely trying to cause fear and confusion in our ranks, so I decided it would be for the best to keep her appearances secret."

He took a deep breath and waited. His father could be very unpredictable when it came to deciding whether or not to accept his well-thought-through reasoning.

"That was a wise decision," Uther finally said. Arthur nearly sighed in relief, when his father turned a particularly angry glare in his direction. "However, if you ever make such a decision on your own and fail to inform me of it, I will have you flogged for disobeying your king."

With that declaration as his parting words, the king swept past them and out of the banquet hall. Arthur slowly let go of the breath he was holding.

"Well, that could've gone worse, I suppose," Merlin commented.

Arthur rolled his eyes.

* * *

Please review!

Author's Notes:

**Kali** - Technically, Kali is the goddess of time and the transformation that is death, however, she is also the ferocious form of the Divine Mother and several other Hindu goes, in their destructive forms, are known as Kali. So I let Dawn just simplify it to 'goddess of destruction'. My information comes from sanatansociety DOT org, which is a nice little site with small blurbs on various Hindu gods and goddesses.

**Balrama** - According to sanatansociety DOT org, Balrama "is a symbol of strength, an obedient son, an ideal brother and husband, an ideal man and god. He is a protector from desires, the divinity of strength or the strength of the divine, symbolizing duty, honesty and simplicity."

Also, the Beast and its story are entirely my own creations. If anything similar actually does exist anywhere, then I've never heard of it.


	6. Sixth Encounter

So, I guess the one good thing about me being home sick from work is that you guys get a new chapter. Lol. Well, with this chapter ends any pre-written stuff I have and with me moving to another city at the end of this month, there sadly probably won't be a new chapter until sometime in July. Just thought I'd warn you all. This chapter also concludes the first half of the story.

Disclaimer: I own neither _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_, nor_ Merlin_.

Warnings: Violence, language.

* * *

**Key in the Kingdom**

**Sixth Encounter**

Arthur was contemplating the many ways in which he could make his manservant's life hell over the next few days (as it turned out, there really were many of them). It would undoubtedly start with a morning in the stocks, then continue with an afternoon mucking out the entire stables and polishing the floors in the council chambers. And, in the meantime, Arthur would set out on a quest to find the biggest, frilliest, most obnoxious hat he could find. In yellow. With big red and orange feathers. He wasn't even sure if such a thing existed, but if it did, then by all that was holy, Arthur would find it.

He quickly glanced behind him to where Merlin was crashing through the undergrowth, somewhat drier than he had been an hour ago, though no less miserable-looking for it. Arthur was decidedly not feeling sympathetic towards him. Not at all. After all, it was all Merlin's fault their all-day hunting trip had turned into an all-day trek back towards Camelot after the boar Arthur would've shot down easily, had Merlin not spooked it, charged at them and startled the horses into galloping away without their riders. Thus leaving them a half-day's walk from Camelot. Or rather, it would've taken only half a day if Merlin hadn't decided to get momentarily delusional and gone running after something that wasn't there and ended up tripping head-first into a lake.

Well, admittedly, the tripping-into-a-lake bit was the highlight of Arthur's day and he'd made sure to laugh quite loudly at it.

It was just past sundown, but he knew they were only an hour or so away from Camelot, so it only made sense to continue to the castle. And to his warm, soft bed. And food that didn't run off when his manservant approached it.

It was clearly a sign of how tired he was that he didn't notice her. One moment Arthur was mentally cursing the undergrowth, the next he was nearly colliding with someone. Someone that smelt strange and yelped in a very familiar way.

"Oh God! Sorry, um... Arthur?" Dawn exclaimed in surprise. Then her eyes widened. "Oh God, oh crap! This is so many kinds of potentially not good."

Arthur groaned. Of course it was her.

"Hello, Dawn!" Merlin chirped happily from behind him and Arthur wondered where the hell the boy managed to find the enthusiasm to smile so cheerfully.

"Oh, hey, Merlin," Dawn answered him, raising an amused eyebrow at him. "For the record, drowned rat? So not your look."

Arthur smirked.

"Oh, I don't know, I think it looks rather fetching," he drawled.

Merlin glared at him with all the intensity of a wet kitten. Dawn giggled.

"Now then," Arthur began, feeling much better now that he had a willing partner in his Merlin-teasing,"Dawn, you look less pleased to see us than usual and I'm going to assume it's not just due to Merlin's sea creature look."

"If I was a sea creature, I'd make sure to be one with big, sharp teeth," he heard Merlin grumble behind him.

Just then, a twig snapped. Arthur's hand flew to his sword, his eyes scanning the surrounding forest.

"Um, this is probably wishful thinking, but I don't suppose you're here with your knights by any chance?" Dawn asked quietly.

"No, it was just the two of us out hunting," Arthur answered.

"Damn."

"Are you being chased by something again?"

"Um, well... not exactly... I kinda, uh-" She sent him an apologetic look. "-I'm bait."

Arthur blinked.

"Bait," he said, wanting to make sure he'd heard right. "Bait for what exactly?"

A low growl resounded from the forest. Arthur unsheathed his sword. Why did these things always growl? Just once he'd like to meet a magical creature that meowed or something – and preferably didn't want to eat him.

"This is something I can kill, right?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, killing was definitely on the agenda," Dawn quickly agreed. "Decapitation works best, by the way."

"Any spikes, tails, horns, imperviousness to regular weapons I should know about?"

"Uh... just long, sharp claws and pointy teeth. And they're really fast and quite intelligent."

Arthur held his sword out in front of him, watching for any signs of movement. He glanced to the side and frowned as Dawn stepped up beside him, holding a sword of her own.

"What are you doing?" he hissed at her.

"Baking cookies," she hissed back. "Clearly."

Arthur was about to argue with this plan of her rushing into battle (which definitely explained why she got along so well with Morgana), when something behind him squeaked and bumped into him.

"Um, Dawn, Arthur," Merlin said quietly, still leaning against Arthur's back. "We may have a slight problem-"

"You mean apart from your abnormal clumsiness?" Arthur growled, elbowing his manservant away from him.

"You're facing the wrong way."

Arthur blinked twice, before swearing loudly and swinging around so that he was suddenly staring at a pair of red eyes that glowed from a barely distinguishable shape in the shadows. His first thought was: 'why do these things always have glowing eyes?'. His second was 'well, at least it looks vaguely human-sized'.

"We're not facing the wrong way, we're surrounded," he suddenly heard Dawn call out. "Arthur, you deal with that one, I'll take the one in front. And Merlin, _any_ help would be greatly appreciated - there's a pack of them."

"What exactly do you think Merlin's going to do? Contamidate them with his stupidity?" Arthur called back. "And anyway, I'm the prince here, so I'm the one, who-"

The creature lunged and Arthur found himself wishing Dawn was prone to exaggeration. The creatures were indeed fast. Arthur just barely managed to lift his sword in time to block a clawed hand from ripping his face apart. He stared with wide eyes at the long, spiney claws that reached past where he had blocked the hand attached to them with his sword and hovered less than a hand-span away from his eyes. Arthur pushed the hand away and the claws retreated.

Now that it was out of the shadows, Arthur managed to get a better look at the creature. It was slightly smaller than him with a round, hairless head and slender – practically starved-looking – body and long, boney arms that ended in those very, very long claws. Glowing, red eyes were silently staring at him again, analyzing his every move.

Arthur gripped his sword with both hands and took a deep breath. Behind him he heard the sounds of fighting and suddenly realized Merlin didn't have a weapon. Then the creature lunged again, long arms swinging wildly and Arthur had no time to wonder about anything. Swing after swing he blocked, the ferocious onslaught leaving him with no room to do anything but desperately defend himself. If the creature had any weaknesses, it certainly covered them up fast enough.

It was a stroke of genius – and he would swear to his dying day it had been intentional – when he fell backwards to the ground just as the creature swung its arms at him again. It was in that moment of completely-on-purpose clumsiness, that Arthur saw his chance. Instead of standing up, he rolled into a crouch and lunged forward with his sword. He caught the creature neatly in the middle of the torso just as it was raising its gangly arms again.

The creature screamed in agony, a high-pitched siren of noise that sounded like a dozen pigs being slaughtered at once.

Arthur quickly pulled his sword out and jumped to the side to avoid its mad gaggle of limbs. He swung his sword at the gaggle and the creature screamed again. A clawed hand fell to the ground with a dull thud and the creature stilled momentarily to stare in shock at the bloody stump, where it used to be. Arthur acted immediately and sent it tumbling to the ground with a mightly swing using the flat of his sword. He then stepped on it to keep it in place as he impaled its neck.

The creature twitched once and then stilled.

Pulling his sword out, Arthur turned to help Dawn... who apparently didn't need his help at all as she neatly severed the head of her opponent. He noticed another one further away, impaled on a thick tree branch, a larger branch having apparently fallen on top of it and pushed it onto the lower branch. Arthur blinked at the scene and thanked all the gods he could think of for this stroke of luck.

He also wondered whether he was imagining it, or had the trees in the forests around Camelot gotten rather unstable recently.

"Well, that was fun-" Arthur began. He was interrupted by several low growls.

"And we're, oh so glad you enjoyed yourself," Merlin said with a glare. "Because, apparently, it's not over yet."

"You do remember how I said a 'pack', right?" Dawn pointed out, even as she stood with her sword in hand, ready for the next attack. "Three equals a trio, not a pack."

"'Pack' is a rather vague term," Arthur commented back. "Exactly how big is this so-called pack?"

Dawn had the gall to simply shrug.

"I think we're about to find out," she said.

Red eyes flashed in the darkness and then a creature lept out, straight at Dawn. Dawn blocked its blows with her sword. Arthur ran to her aid, but was forced to stop abruptly and swivle to the side as two more lept at him from the side. He ignored the sharp pain that exploded in his left bicep and turned his swivle motion into a full turn, swinging his sword at the closest dark shape. He felt the resistence of his sword slicing through something and then there was another one of those horrible screams.

Arthur never found out what he'd managed to cut, because then the other one was attacking him. There was no finesse, no order to the creature's attack, just slash after slash of very long claws. If this thing had been human, disarming it would've been simple.

Suddenly, Arthur stumbled. During those few moments, when he wobbled slightly in order to regain his balance, he met the creatures eyes. It was laughing at him. He watched its hand swipe at him and braced himself for the pain that was to come.

All of a sudden, a screech resounded through the clearing and something collided with the creature about to evicerate him, knocking it to the ground. Arthur blinked at the two creatures now laying at his feet.

The one on the bottom growled. Then the one that had flown through the air tried to struggle to its feet. Arthur noticed it looked decidedly worse for wear. Two quick strides later and Arthur was pushing it back down with his foot to make sure they both stayed still, before running his sword through its skull. It went limp at the same time as the bottom creature began screeching and flailing madly to get away from where the sword had also managed to impale its abdomen.

Arthur pulled his sword out as he desperately fought to retain his balance and thus keep the creature beneath him in place. He hissed as the creature's claws tore though the upper part of his boot. Suddenly there was a thud and the creature stopped, leaving Arthur confused and staring at the waraxe imbeded in its skull.

Then he heard some crashing and shuffling in the undergrowth.

"Arthur, behind you!" he heard Merlin call.

Arthur spun around and his sword clashed with more claws. Somewhere behind him, he heard Dawn cry out in pain. He grit his teeth. He was the Crown Prince of Camelot. He had people to protect; he couldn't let them die simply because he was feeling a bit overwhelmed by his un-human opponents.

So he put all his strength behind his sword and pushed the creature backwards, making it hop a step back as it readied for its next strike. Arthur moved when it brought its arms down slightly, lunging at it. He ignored the pain in his torso, where its claws landed, too intent on his goal. The creature didn't make a single sound as he neatly chopped off its head.

He stood over the corpse with a feeling of intense satisfaction – clearly, he was getting the hang of this. Just like he knew he would. After all, these things weren't _that_ tough.

"Arthur, are you all right?" Merlin asked, suddenly behind his master. Arthur started slightly and then winced as the fresh wound on his torso sent a wave of agony through him.

"Yes, of course, I am," he snapped at his manservant. "I'm not a girl, Merlin, I'm a knight and-"

"-a prat," Merlin finished dismissively. Then his eyes scanned Arthur and he frowned. "A wounded prat."

"It's not so bad," Arthur protested lamely even as his torso and right calf screamed otherwise. He shook off Merlin's hand. "Really, Merlin, how can you be mothering me when Dawn clearly needs our-"

He stopped abruptly as he watched Dawn swirl out of the way of a pair of sharp claws. Before the creature had a chance to raise them again, she danced back into its range and ran the creature through with her sword. The creature screeched and flailed, nowhere near dead yet. The girl brought her leg up and pushed the creature away as she pulled her sword out, making it stumble. No sooner was the sword out, then Dawn was once again moving forward, raising her arms and taking the creature's head in one, clean swipe.

Arthur would never admit it out loud, but he was impressed. Her swordsmanship wasn't perfect and he was sure he could easily best her in an actual duel, but her movements spoke of experience on a battlefield – possibly fighting creatures just like these ones.

There was a loud scream to Arthur's left. He turned in time to see yet another creature crash its way out of the bushes. It ran – no, limped – towards him, its long arms dangling centimetres above the ground. Arthur gripped his sword with both hands and prepared to face it head-on.

Just then, another figure came sailing over the bushes with a flap of black and a flash of white, landing nearly on top of the creature. It didn't even have time to scream before it was cleaved in half with a large sword. The figure straightened up and Arthur breathed a sigh of relief. It had white hair and was wearing a long, black coat, but it was a man.

Then the man looked up and Arthur took back that sigh of relief. The man had pronounced ridges decorating his forehead and his eyes glowed an inhuman yellow. The surprise must've shown on his face, because the not-man grinned maliciously, showing off a set of fangs. Arthur whiped the surprise off his face and prepared to face it.

But, instead of charging, it looked to the side.

"Oi, Bit, you need some 'elp there?" he called.

"Nope, I'm good," Arthur heard Dawn call back. "Wait, Spike? You're here too?"

He blinked. _What?_

"Yo, I think I got the last of the Hidden Ambush Club," came a second voice and a woman walked out of the forest.

She had dark, wavy hair and dark red lips and was wearing a strip of fabric held up with straps together with breeches that looked as though they were painted on. How in the world did she peel them off... Arthur shook his head. Wrong train of thought.

The woman was holding a sword covered in blood in one hand. Her other hand was on her hip and she looked rather annoyed.

"Now, does someone wanna explain how the fuck the park suddenly managed to become a forest?" she demanded. "Not that I didn't enjoy the slice and dice, but I coulda done without the tree obstacle course."

The white-haired creature chuckled. Arthur glanced back at it and did a double take. Now it looked human; his eyes weren't glowing anymore and his forehead was completely ridge-free. He looked like an ordinary man – a rather pale man with odd-coloured hair, but just a man. Then he sniffed the air.

"Don't think it's just the lack of park that's the problem, 'ere, luv," the not-human creature said. "Pretty sure it's safe to say we're not anywhere near Kansas anymore."

"Kansas hasn't even been invented yet," Dawn commented. "Also, can you seriously stop with the sniffing thing. Buffy's right, it's creepy."

"You think the _sniffiing_ is creepy?" Arthur asked in a completely calm and collected voice. "I saw him: his eyes were yellow and his face was all deformed, and, well, he's definitely not human and you're worrying about the fact that he sniffs at things?"

Both newcomers were giving him amused looks.

"Er, well, Spike doesn't seem human because he's not..." Dawn began to explain nervously. Arthur could pretty much see his sanity waving good-bye to his mind. He took a deep breath.

"Dawn, you clearly know these people," he stated. He waited for Dawn to nod before continuing. "As the Crown Prince of Camelot, I demand to know who, and what they are!"

He saw the amused expressions on Dawns' friends faces vanish. The woman looked shocked and the man/creature was frowning.

"Hang on," the man/creature suddenly said, "I may not be an expert 'ere, but-"

"Alternate dimension," Dawn interrupted. "Uther's still alive, Arthur's his legitimate son and magic is illegal."

"Huh? Who's Uther?" the woman asked. "And hang on there, we're in Camelot and magic's illegal? Then what about-"

"I'll explain later." Dawn turned to Arthur. "Um, so yeah, these are my friends, Faith and Spike." She pointed to each in turn. "Faith's human and Spike a, uh, vampire. Oh, but, don't worry, he won't start randomly slaughtering anyone, 'cause he's over that. I-it was a phase and it's gone, done and over with. He's totally with us now. Fighting the good fight and saving people and all to, uh, get redemption and stuff. He-he even saved the world once."

Arthur only heard about half of what she'd said. His brain had frozen on the word 'vampire'. The 'man' was a blood-sucking undead thing and she was telling him not to worry?

He glanced at Merlin and instantly felt slightly better knowing his manservant seemed just as shaken by this revelation as he was. Although, this was Merlin, whose clumsiness was practically legendary and who could barely hold a sword properly, let alone fend off a hungry vampire, so perhaps that wasn't such a comforting thought after all.

And Dawn was calling this vampire, Spike, her friend. Arthur briefly wondered what Dawn's future was like if vampires were creatures people could be 'friends' with. Did people also ride gryffins in her world? Not that Arthur ever wanted to see another gryffin ever again – once was quite enough for this lifetime thank you very much (though, he had to admit that the idea of riding a _tamed_ gryffin into battle was oddly appealing). He shook himself out of his daydream and realized Dawn had just introduced im to her friends. Faith was staring at him with wide eyes.

"Woah, you mean he's THE Arthur, like Sword in the Stone Arthur?" she asked.

"Yep."

Arthur straightened himself up proudly. Because, oh right - vampire or no vampire – to them he was a _legend_.

"And this is his _manservant_, Merlin." Arthur frowned at Dawn's odd emphasis on the word 'manservant'. Why was the concept of manservants so confusing for these people from the future.

"Thought so," said Spike with a smirk.

"Merlin?" Faith asked, looking confused. "But, I thought you said-"

"Later, Faith," Dawn cut her off, sending her a pointed look.

Arthur found himself growing even more confused. He glanced at Merlin again. The boy was standing very still, his eyes flitting from one person to the next. Arthur wondered, not for the first time, whether he was missing something, some vital piece of information that would suddenly make the entire world make sense – and mostly his manservant.

Merlin must have sensed him watching, because he turned his head slightly and met his eyes. Arthur saw fear in them. Of course, fighting a pack of long-armed monster things and then coming face to face with a vampire would make any lesser knight afraid. Why, even Arthur himself would admit – if pressed – that he'd been a bit shaken by the experience. And Merlin was no knight.

"So, have you and G-man managed to figure out how you're trippin' into Camelot?" Faith suddenly asked. Arthur turned his attention back to them.

"Um, no," Dawn answered with an apologetic smile. "Other things have been coming up, like Russian water demons, cursed dino-dogs and William the Bloody wannabes-"

"I think you really need to get Watcherman focused on this," Spike interrupted. "'Cause this would've been really bad if Slayer and me weren't 'ere to help."

Dawn sighed. "Yeah, you're right."

"Uh, Dawn...?" Merlin suddenly piped up. Everyone turned to look at him, apparently startling him with the sudden attention. "Uh, sorry, I just though that, um, is it just me or are your stays here getting longer too?"

Faith and Spike exchanged looks, before turning to Dawn, who seemed to be thinking it over.

"Well, I wasn't exactly timing the last time – for obvious reasons – but I think you might be right."

"Uh, D, I may not be an expert on magicky things, but that really doesn't sound of the good," said Faith.

"Magic?" Arthur demanded. It was the only part of their conversation he somewhat understood, so he was going to focus on it. He was still the prince, dammit. So, he glared at Dawn. "I thought you said you weren't a sorceress."

"I'm not!" Dawn sounded rather exasperated.

"But now you're saying there's magic involved."

"And how, exactly, did you think she was getting 'ere, by TARDIS?" Spike asked, rolling his eyes.

Arthur opened his mouth to answer and then closed it again as he realized, he had no idea what the vampire had just asked him. Well, except for the sarcasm. He knew sarcasm when he heard it, but what in the world was a tardis? A new kind of coach from the future?

The vampire looked amused for several seconds and then suddenly groaned and covered his face with his hand.

"Uh, Spike - " Faith began.

"I am going to kill Andrew," said Spike, his voice sounding slightly muffled from behind his hand.

Dawn giggled.

"Aww," she said. "Is the big, bad Spike being corrupted by uber-geek extraordinaire?"

"'S not funny."

Arthur exchanged looks with Merlin. Were they supposed to understand any of this? Because, Arthur was sure half of that last sentence wasn't even in English. The future just kept getting stranger and stranger by the minute.

"Actually, it's fucking hillarious," Faith commented

Spike growled at her and muttered something under his breath. Just then, Merlin gasped.

"Dawn," he said, staring at her with wide eyes. "You-you're glowing green."

"I'm what?"

Arthur frowned. She looked perfectly normal to him. Well, as normal as she ever did.

"Merlin, have you caught a cold?" he asked. "Perhaps you're halucinating."

Meanwhile, Spike grabbed Faith and dashed to Dawn's side.

"Woah, Spike, what's the-"

Arthur and Merlin never heard the rest of the sentence, because suddenly the three of them were gone. Arthur looked around him and sighed. Because, of course, the dead demon things were still there.

"I can't believe it," he said. "Merlin, she's worse at cleaning than you are."

Arthur ignored his manservant's indignant protests as he began to walk (with only a very slight, rather miniscule limp) towards the castle.

* * *

Author's Notes:

TARDIS - I feel rather silly explaining this, but here goes: TARDIS is an acronym and stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. It's the type of time and space machine flown by the Doctor on the BBC sci-fi series _Doctor Who_.


	7. Seventh Encounter

Don't have much to say about this chapter. I think it pretty much speaks for itself. Thanks to** Queen Megaera** and** The Glaistig** for betaing. Also, thanks to everyone, who took the time to review the last chapter.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize isn't mine.

* * *

**Key in the Kingdom**

**Seventh Encounter**

Dawn rolled her eyes and felt rather thankful her sister was in France hunting some demon, who was trying to recreate the French Revolution (the fact that France no longer had a monarchy to rebel against having apparently been lost on it or dubbed inconsequential in the Grand Plan). Not that distance stopped Buffy from going into over-protective sister mode - it was simply done over the phone.

"Relax, Buffy," Dawn said, cutting off her sister's rant. "Half the people in the room are probably going to be slayers and Spike said he might show up for a peek too. Plus, I'm pretty sure I know all the signs of how to tell if they guy flirting with you is either a) a demon, b) a vampire or c) just trying to get in my pants. Even if I wasn't a Scoobie, I'd have gotten it from the lectures you gave me the last five or ten times I went out anywhere."

"I'm your older sister; I'm allowed to worry," Buffy replied and Dawn smiled at the pout she could hear in her voice. "An-and what if Xander's suddenly started rubbing off on you? You could start off drinking punch and end up tied to a pillar and being sacrificed to some ancient god thingy of um, something..."

"Okay, I'm pretty sure demon magnetism isn't contagious. Also, Xander's totally not been attracting nearly as many night bumpy things as he was in Sunnydale. Which might mean he either grew out of it or it was a Hellmouth exclusive."

"Fine, fine, but the older sister card still stands."

"Yes, and I'm happy that you care for me and worry about me, but seriously, I'll be fine. Trust me. Faith's going to be there."

"You're going to a party that Faith's going to be at. _That's_ supposed to make me feel better?"

"Uh, maybe not so much. But you know you can trust me right?"

Dawn waited for Buffy's capitulation with bated breath. This tactic had never failed her before. The advantage of being Buffy Summers' younger sister was that Dawn had the inside scoop on all of her indiscretions and knew exactly how to use them. And Buffy knew it.

Dawn frowned. It was taking Buffy an awfully long time to respond.

"Uh, Buffy?" No answer. "Buffy? Hello, are you there?"

She looked at the cellphone's display and blinked at the "No Signal" message written across the window.

"No signal?" she muttered. "How the hell do I have no-"

"Uh, Dawn?"

Dawn's head snapped up. She stared at the two young men sitting at a table with two tankers of ale and several plates of food between them. Dawn hit the red button that hung up the phone.

"So, cellphone signals don't carry into alternate dimensions," she said. "Go figure."

She sighed and slipped her cellphone into the little teal purse she was carrying (it matched her teal high heel sandals). A glance to her right revealed a magnificent four poster bed covered in deep red sheets with patterns on them stitched in gold thread and complimented with matching curtains. So, a bedroom then. And, by the looks of it, probably a prince's.

"Hey Arthur, Merlin," said Dawn as she walked towards them. "How've you been? I'd say it's great to see you, but this is so not the party I was expecting to go to tonight."

Her heels clicked loudly on the stone floor.

"Hello Dawn," said Merlin with a slight frown. "You don't look like there's anything chasing you. There isn't anything chasing you, right? I just finished cleaning the floors-"

"Not that you can tell," Arthur commented. Merlin turned to glare at him.

"Nope, the only dangerous thing will be my sister, who might be thinking I just hung up on her in the middle of her 'be careful of all things male' speech. She likes giving the 'be careful of all things male' speech."

"If that's what you're wearing I'm not surprised," said Arthur. Dawn felt herself blushing slightly when she realized just how much Arthur was paying attention to what she was wearing.

"Uh, she may not be entirely aware of what I'm wearing to the party..."

She'd very carefully not mentioned her exact wardrobe to her sister beyond the black skirt and white top with teal sandals. Buffy didn't need to know just how short the skirt was and that the top was a silky white halter top. In fact, the skirt was a bit shorter than what Dawn usually felt comfortable in and the top a little bit too see-through, but the other slayers had insisted she looked fine.

"How can she not know what you're wearing if you were talking to her?" Merlin asked with a frown.

"Through the wonders of modern technology," said Dawn. "Communications have really come a long way since, um, now. Your time."

"Does it have anything to do with that thing you were holding when you came in, er, arrived?" Arthur asked.

Dawn blinked. Right, the cellphone. She reached into her purse and pulled it out, holding it up to show the boys.

"This is called a cellphone," she said. "It's a portable communications device. Basically, it means I can call anyone anywhere, who has a similar type of device. Right now, Buffy's in France, which now that I think of it isn't called France yet..." Dawn paused and racked her brain for a map of medieval Europe. "Er, the Kingdom of the Franks?"

Arthur and Merlin's eyes widened, and Dawn assumed that meant she'd gotten it right.

"But, that would take months of travel!" Arthur exclaimed. "You were able to talk just like that?"

"Wow, it's like magic," Merlin added. Then he shot Arthur a quick glance. "Only not. Because magic is bad, very, very bad."

Arthur just rolled his eyes. He got up and came around the table to take a closer look at Dawn's cellphone. Dawn quashed the giggle that threatened to come out when the prince carefully poked at it.

"It's not alive," she said. "Not going to bite you or anything."

"It's small," Merlin commented. "How does it work?"

"You mean that in a 'how do you use it' way, not 'explain the science behind it' way, right?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess."

"Good, 'cause I took physics and all in school, but all I know is that it's got something to do with transmitting sound waves. But the user-friendly explanation would be that the cellphone rings, you press a button and put it to your ear and then you can hear the person with the other phone and you can talk and they'll hear you."

"Fascinating," said Arthur thoughtfully. "It must make running a kingdom much simpler. If something happens, then a soldier or village leader can use one of these to let the king know almost immediately. And then once the king has reached a decision as to what to do, he can let the village leader or general know right away. Could save weeks or even months in waiting for messengers."

"Yeah." Dawn smiled mischievously. "Plus, this is only the beginning of what we can do to communicate. Now imagine what it must be like if you can actually _see_ the person you're talking to."

Arthur's eyes went wide with excitement.

"Really?"

This time Dawn really did giggle at the expression on the prince's face. He looked like a small child, who'd just been told all the candy in the shop was for free.

"And this is all done without magic?" Merlin asked. Dawn turned to him and smiled.

"Yeah. Like I said before, most people don't believe in magic anymore. They think it's all fairy tales, stories to entertain children with."

"Which is undoubtedly a good thing," said Arthur. "It means that the war against magic has been won. Magic only brings evil with it-"

"Except when it's the only thing that can stop that evil," said Dawn firmly.

Sometimes, she really, really liked Arthur. And then he would turn around and say something that would make him a complete ass. Although, she did realize that it wasn't entirely his fault – he didn't know that Merlin was a sorcerer. But Dawn had noticed that something broke a little inside Merlin's eyes every time Arthur denounced magic and sorcerers. Besides, she'd personally seen magic save people just as often as she'd seen it used to hurt them. And she was under no illusions that, had the circumstances been different, she would've found herself executed for being a witch the moment she'd appeared in Camelot. She'd met Uther Pendragon only once and knew without a doubt that he was not a man to waste time listening to technicalities.

"Evil can always be defeated," Arthur snarled, straightening up.

Dawn raised an eyebrow at him. She was about to point out that not all evil was created equal, when she was interrupted.

Her cellphone rang.

Dawn blinked and then stared at it as Lady Gaga's 'Just Dance' echoed throughout the stone chamber. She glanced at the caller ID: it was Faith. Dawn looked up and saw the bewildered expressions on Arthur and Merlin's faces that meant she wasn't imaging it. With a frown she pressed the green button on the phone and brought it to her ear.

"Uh, hello?" she said, turning away from the boys.

"_D? Dawn? That seriously you? Thank god. We've been looking for you for hours. You been trippin' again or something?"_

"Uh, yeah."

Dawn barely heard what the senior slayer was saying as she stared at the familiar hallway. Directly in front of her was a large, stone staircase that spiralled upwards as it led to the second floor. There, she could see plain oak doors looming up from the other side of the copper railing that extended from the stairs to cover the rest of the landing. She was in the Watcher's Council building. Which wasn't where she'd been before at all. She'd been in the apartment Buffy had rented in the city getting ready for – wait, did Faith say _hours_?

"Hang on, did you say hours?" she said into the phone, suddenly feeling wide awake. "Did I seriously just miss the party?"

Faith chuckled on the other end.

"_Didn't miss much, got interrupted by an ugly demony thing. Actually, with your luck, you probably would've been the one, who got possessed."_

"Possessed?" Dawn screeched. "What the hell-?"

"_Woah, D, I could've sworn I just heard that double. Where are you anyway?"_

"Uh, I'm in the Watcher's Council hallway."

"_Oh, hang on then-"_

The phone went dead. Dawn looked at the display. Faith had hung up?

Just then, one of the doors upstairs slammed shut. She heard running footsteps and there was Faith leaning over the banister looking down. She was grinning.

"Yo, you came back just in time!" the slayer proclaimed, her voice echoing slightly. Then she paused and Dawn could see from she was standing how her eyes lit up with excitement. "And you even brought souvenirs this time!"

"Huh?" Dawn looked down at her hands. What was Faith talking about? The only things she had with her were her purse and cellphone.

Faith jumped over the banister railing and dropped down to the first floor, landing gently like a cat. She straightened up and grinned.

"Yo, Arthur, Merlin, good to see yah again," she said with a slight wave.

Dawn froze. Then she slowly turned to look behind her.

"Oh, hello, uh... Faith, I think it was?" Arthur said, shaking himself out of a stupor. Meanwhile, Merlin was still gaping at Faith. Arthur smiled confidently. "So this is the future, is it?"

"Crap," said Dawn. "This is so not good."

* * *

Please review!


	8. Arthur's Encounter

Took me a while, but here's the next chapter (finally). Thanks to everyone, who reviewed the last chapter! And really sorry for taking so long to respond to some of your reviews. You'll all no doubt be glad to know that the next two chapters will be posted next week. They're pretty much done just need some editing. Also, thank you very much to **Glastig**, my amazing beta.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I don't own.

* * *

**Key in the Kingdom**

**Arthur's Encounter **

_Faith jumped over the banister railing and dropped down to the first floor, landing gently like a cat. She straightened up and grinned. _

"_Yo, Arthur, Merlin, good to see yah again," she said with a slight wave._

_Dawn froze. Then she slowly turned to look behind her._

"_Oh, hello, uh... Faith, I think it was?" Arthur said, shaking himself out of a stupor. Meanwhile, Merlin was still gaping at Faith. Arthur smiled confidently. "So this is the future, is it?" _

"_Crap," said Dawn. "This is so not good."_

_

* * *

_

Arthur looked around the strange house. He wasn't quite sure what he'd expected the future to look like – had never really given much thought to what the world would be like fifteen hundred years after he was dead.

Some things looked similar, inasmuch as he could tell he was inside a home, where people lived. There were tables and chairs (he spied some big and very comfortable-looking upholstered ones in an adjacent room) and shelves with books, but so many other things looked so completely alien he wasn't even sure he could guess their purpose. Faith's arrival had distracted him away from the huge mirror he'd been looking at – mirrors were extremely expensive and as far as Arthur knew, the only one in Camelot was Morgana's and hers was only a fraction of the size of this one and not nearly as smooth. Things were clearly very different in the future if someone who wasn't royalty could afford a mirror this big.

Of course it wouldn't do for the crown prince to be seen gaping like some hapless peasant, so he quickly pulled himself together and turned his attention to Faith. She looked amused, but there was a hardness around her eyes and a sort of twitchiness in her movements, as though she were waiting for something to happen, which immediately put Arthur on alert. There was an air about her now that screamed 'warrior' even more than it had when she'd been in the forest holding a sword and surrounded by demon corpses.

Dawn, on the other hand, looked rather horrified.

Suddenly, a loud, drawn-out scream pierced the air, raising the hairs on the back of Arthur's neck. It had come from upstairs. He tensed and grabbed for his sword, only to curse when he realized he didn't have it. It was resting beside the chair where Merlin had placed it after he'd finished sharpening it. So it was very sharp and very shiny and utterly useless. And worst of all, there wasn't even any conceivable way in which he could blame this on Merlin!

"Damn, that girl's got a mean set of lungs on her," Faith commented with a wince.

"What the hell was that?" Dawn demanded. She'd whirled around towards the noise as soon as it had started, eyes wide and skin paling.

"Some chick named Shannon or Sharon or something – a friend of one of the local slayers. Was at the party and got possessed by some demon, who lives in flower vases."

"Flower vases?"

"Yup, someone knocked this ugly vase over, it shattered and suddenly this black mist comes out of it, roars and jumps right into the girl. Like in a movie." Faith grinned. "Boy am I ever glad you're back. Giles was gonna have me help him oust the demon and we all know how well I mix with magic."

Arthur froze.

"Where's Andrew?"

"Other end of town. Idiot had his cell turned off and it took technophobe Giles a while to figure out how to get the numbers of the slayers with him out of the database."

"And I take it the exorcism can't wait for him to get back."

"Nope."

Arthur looked from Faith's now-serious face to Dawn's slightly nervous one. He couldn't believe it; they were just standing there calmly discussing using magic right in front of him!

"You're going to use magic?" he asked slowly, getting their attention. "But magic is evil and even if it doesn't seem that way, nothing good can ever come of using it."

Faith shrugged. "Whatever works, yo. If savin' her means using magic, then I'm game." She calmly met Arthur's gaze with hard, determined eyes – the eyes of a leader, one who'd seen battles and watched their fellow warriors fall. "That girl's innocent; she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And I'm not going to go tell her mother that she's dead 'cause we got squeamish. So can the anti-magic propaganda bullshit until we've saved her and the demon's outta commission or I _will_ take you down and I don't care what your faithful sidekick there can turn me into!"

Another scream tore through the house from the second floor. Arthur winced at the agonized sound, which ended in a sort of inhuman growl. He couldn't believe that could possibly be from the throat of any human.

"Calm down, Faith," said Dawn. Then she turned to Arthur with eyes that pleaded for understanding. "Look, Arthur, I know you've been taught to believe that all magic is evil, but, you know, it's really not that simple. So, right now you'll just have to trust us. Please?"

Arthur was about to protest when he felt a familiar hand touch his shoulder. He turned to Merlin's pleading eyes. There was a quiet determination in them, circled by uncertainty, as though his manservant wasn't quite sure if he should be speaking up on the matter. Which was highly unusual: Merlin never had a problem speaking up about anything.

"Arthur, please, just... just let them save her," he said. Then the pleading in his eyes was gone, replaced by a more familiar mischievousness. "Besides, it's not like you have a say here anyway. Nothing royal about you here. You're just an ordinary prat."

Dawn giggled. Arthur turned to the two women, saw Faith's smirk (it reminded him too much of Morgana for comfort) and realized he'd been beat. Well, for the moment anyway. He sighed.

"Very well, I'll concede the matter for the moment," he said.

"Oi, Watcherman's getting all knicker-bunched, what's taking you so long?"

Arthur froze at the familiar voice and cursed. He'd forgotten about the vampire. Looking up, he met pale blue eyes, which looked surprised for a few moments before turning into an amused smirk. In the light, the vampire's unnaturalness was more obvious than it had been in the forest. His skin was so pale it was almost translucent and there was a sort of glow to it that made Arthur wonder how such a creature could ever creep through any shadows undetected (because that was what vampires did, creep through shadows and then pounce on their unsuspecting victims and bleed them dry, right?).

Unlike when they'd met in the forest, the vampire – he was pretty sure his name was Spike or Spear or Sparkle or something like that - there was no blood, no dead demons and his eyes weren't glowing. Hell, he wasn't even armed. And yet there was a tension, some sort of energy surrounding him that made him appear even more dangerous than before. Something menacing in the casual way he leaned against the railing that made Arthur want to back away slowly.

He didn't, of course, because that would be like saying he was scared and knights of Camelot didn't get scared. Unless Morgana was involved. Then it was only logical to be at least a bit scared.

"The swords ready then?" Faith asked and the vampire looked away from Arthur.

"Yeah, they are," he answered.

"Sweet!" Then the woman began heading back upstairs. "C'mon Dawn, you're starring in this show."

"Oh joy," said Dawn with very little enthusiasm. Then she motioned to Arthur and Merlin. "You two might as well come and watch. Giles might even have something for you to do..."

She trailed off and froze on the first step, her eyes widening slightly as she seemed to realize something. She brought a hand to cover her mouth as she turned to look back at Arthur and Merlin. The slight alarm in her eyes quickly turned to a mischievous amusement and Arthur could see a smile tug at her lips.

"What is it?" Arthur asked warily; that particular expression never boded well for him.

"Oh, nothing, nothing," Dawn quickly – too quickly – answered before turning around and rushing up the stairs. "You'll see. Come on."

Arthur met Merlin's eyes and his manservant shrugged. With a frown and a feeling of trepidation he was used to associating with Morgana, Arthur followed Dawn up the stairs and then down a hallway lined with wooden doors. Each door was painted a different colour and decorated in such an odd and eclectic assortment of ways, that Arthur got the impression that it had been multiple people doing the decorating as no door seemed to match another in the hallway. The first one he passed was painted pink and had a cloth doll hanging from a hook, which was surrounded by a multitude of small paintings that had to have been drawn by some sort of magical creature, because Arthur was sure that no human hand could ever achieve the vivid colour and incredible detail these had. Across the hall was a dark blue door one with a short, yet elaborate sword with a dragon-shaped hilt hanging from a black hook. And then further down still, Arthur could see a white door with a bizarre mural drawn over it that made very little sense to Arthur, the only things he was able to recognize on it being several figures that were apparently some sort of parody of the human body.

Arthur heard a door open somewhere at the end of the hallway and pulled his attention away from the strange doors to something that was probably more important. He wouldn't want anyone to the wrong impression that he was being distracted by the strange-looking doors.

The last person Arthur expected to see walk out of the open door at the end of hall, was his father.

The man ignored everyone else and headed straight for Dawn, immediately pointing out something to her that was written in the large open tome he was holding in his hands. Arthur didn't pay attention to what was being said, the words just empty sounds as his mind saw nothing past his father's face and felt nothing other than confusion. He did wonder when Gaius had finally managed to convince the king that wearing glasses did not make him appear weak...

Suddenly his father and Dawn were disappearing into the room and Arthur was dashing after them before he realized what he was doing. His warrior's mind registered the presence of about half a dozen people about the room, but didn't sense any danger from them, so he paid them no heed.

"Father?" he said loudly.

He hadn't noticed the noise in the room he'd entered until the multitude of voices abruptly fell silent. Arthur suddenly felt very self-conscious and in the first few moments of silence that followed his exclamation, his mind finally caught up with his eyes and he noticed a few small details he hadn't before. The man standing next to Dawn and blinking owlishly at him was not only wearing glasses, but also rather odd-looking and decidedly un-kingly clothes of a weave Arthur didn't recognize. His stance was meeker, lacking the proud, powerful authority of a warrior king that his father eluded and his face didn't bear the deep, dark lines of sorrow.

As he came to the logical conclusion that, despite the resemblance, this man was clearly not his father, Arthur felt his face grow warm. A chuckle from his right broke the silence in the room.

"Woah, G-man, I was only gone for, like, three months!" said a male voice with the same sort of accent Dawn spoke in. Arthur glanced at the speaker and saw a dark-haired man with an eyepatch and a wide grin.

"Xander, don't call me that," said the man who looked like his father in a vaguely annoyed tone of voice, that sounded a bit more automatic than irritated – as though he'd long since given up on his words ever changing anything, yet refused to simply give up and let it go.

"I'm very sorry, young man," he then said to Arthur politely – and in a mild manner that sounded so utterly wrong coming from his father's face. "I'm afraid I have absolutely no idea who you are. How exactly did you come to be here?"

"Uh, I know that one," said Dawn and the man shot her a look.

"I was rather afraid of that," he said with a resigned sigh. Dawn looked a bit sheepish for a moment.

"Ehe, right, yeah. Umm... so you know how I've been dimension-hopping to an alternate dimension of Camelot right?"

"Okay, stop! Time-out there!" the man with the eye-patch suddenly exclaimed, jumping out of his seat and striding up to Dawn, now looking more concerned than amused. "I'm pretty sure _I _never heard about this!"

"That's 'cause you've been in Africa for the past three months," said Dawn.

"Yeah, okay, that's fair," he conceded. "But, just to be clear: when you say 'alternate dimension Camelot' are we talking Demon-lot, Fish-a-lot or Spam-a-lot?"

Arthur blinked, his already-muddled mind trying to figure out just what the question was supposed to be.

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Neither. It's just Arthurian legends with a few differences -"

"Assuming, of course, that the legends as we know them are correct in the first place," the man that looked like King Uther interjected.

"Well, yeah. But I'm going with the legends being mostly right, 'cause somehow dimension hopping sounds a bit less scary than time travel."

"Yeah, but not quite as cool," the eye-patch man said, his grin back in place. Suddenly the grin disappeared again and the man looked serious as he placed one hand on each of Dawn's shoulders and met her eyes. "So, you're saying there's no big, scary demons running the place? No terrible Wizards of Id or fluffy, man-eating bunnies for me to worry about?"

Dawn snorted. "Nope, definitely no man-eating bunnies."

"Okay, good."

Arthur couldn't help but wonder, once again, about this future world and the people that lived in it. He certainly hoped they didn't often come across man-eating bunnies, because Arthur was certain Merlin would never let him live it down should he be injured by one – not that he, leader of the Camelot Knights, would ever be bested by anything that even remotely resembled something as harmless as a bunny, but accidents do occasionally happen...

"If we're quite done with the silliness that you all persist on falling into during the direst of circumstances," said the man, who looked like his father with a sharp, admonishing look that oddly enough reminded Arthur of Gaius – only without the eyebrow.

"Right, sorry," said the young man, looking only slightly apologetic. He reminded Arthur a bit of Merlin, which was a rather scary thought, because his manservant was clumsy and incompetent enough for several people. He didn't need an alternate dimension version of himself. Thankfully, the man with the eyepatch didn't actually look like Merlin.

And, just like that, Arthur decided he'd had enough of this comedy playing itself out in front of his eyes.

"I sincerely apologize for my error," he said in his Crown Prince Voice – the one he used when speaking to his knights and to visiting nobles he needed to impress – and bowed slightly to the man, who looked like his father. "I'm afraid the unusual mode of travel had left me a bit disorientated and I mistook you for someone else." He straightened himself to his full height, wishing he had his sword, or at least his more formal tunic on. "I am Arthur Pendragon, Crown Prince of Camelot. May I enquire as to whom I have the pleasure of addressing?"

And just like that, the room was silent again. A roomful of wide eyes stared at him and he met them, chest puffed out proudly and head held high. He was a legend to these people and so he was damn well going to play the part.

"R-rupert Giles," the man, who looked like his father, said after a slight pause. "It's an honour, your- uh, I mean, sire."

"Jumpin' jellybeans!" the younger one swore (at least it said in a tone of voice that indicated he was swearing, since Arthur had no idea what a jellybean was or why they would be jumping). "Man, Dawn, you really don't do things small, do you?"

"I learnt from the best," said Dawn, clearly enjoying her friend's shock. Arthur was rather enjoying it himself, if truth be told.

"Now, wait a moment there," said Rupert Giles with a frown. Then his eyes widened in realization. "Aaah, I see, so that's one of the differences in this alternate dimension."

"Yup, one of the two big ones I've noticed," Dawn answered. "I mean, there's a bunch, but a lot of them could be the result of stories getting retold and changed over time..."

"Hmm, indeed."

There were a few moments of silence and Arthur was rather glad to see his own confusion mirrored on the faces of those around him - which, now that he was actually looking, were mostly girls. He looked behind him to see if perhaps Merlin had decided to have a rare insightful moment... only to find Merlin missing.

"Um, okay, am I the only one here being confused?"

Arthur cursed inwardly at his wayward manservant and turned back to see the man with the eyepatch looking around the room, his right hand slightly raised as if he were calling for attention. The girls around the room seemed to be silently agreeing with him-

"It's 'cause he's a prince, yeah," came a bored-sounding voice. Arthur looked to a girl of no more than seventeen. Her hair was cut so short she could've easily been mistaken for a boy had her top – that seemed to have half of it missing – left any sort of ambiguity as to her sex. Her nose had a red stone stuck on it and her earlobes, eyebrows and lips had a series of thin metal rings pierced through them and a bright green and red snake slithered up her right arm.

"Of course he's a prince," said the man with the eyepatch. "He's not king yet, so he's got to be a prince, right?"

"Nah, in the legends, Arthur was never prince, right, 'cause he was the bastard son of Uther Pendragon and Ygraine, uh, something-or-other. Can't remember her name, but she was married to someone else or something."

"Yes, exactly," said Giles. "Which means that in this dimension, Uther and Ygraine must've married, which is why Arthur here can be crown prince."

He looked to Arthur for confirmation and Arthur nodded.

"Yes, my mother's name was Ygraine," he said, proud of how steady his voice sounded.

Suddenly, there came a loud bang from the doorway and a short cry of pain followed by a few mumbled curses. Arthur sighed and then rolled his eyes, recognizing the signatures of his manservant's clumsiness. It was a good thing he wasn't a legend, otherwise there would likely be a roomful of disappointed people. He glanced backwards, just to make sure Merlin hadn't somehow managed to actually maim himself on the door frame.

"Uh... yeah. So, Arthur being a prince is the first big difference," he heard Dawn suddenly blurt out in the background, her words suddenly sounding like she was in a hurry to say what she wanted to say. Merlin, meanwhile smiled sheepishly at Arthur from the doorway, before hobbling with only a slight wince towards him. "And the other big difference is that there's no magic. As in, it exists, but it's illegal and anyone caught using it is executed. So, that means there's no magic users in Camelot, or at least not any that people know about. Obviously if there were a sorcerer or magician or something in Camelot they'd be hiding their powers so that no one would know about them, because they'd then tell the king or one of the knights or -"

"Oi, Bit, you can put the sledgehammer away, I think they've got it!"

Arthur frowned, recognizing the vampire's voice, but not knowing where it was coming from. And come to think of it, where had Faith gone? He was sure she'd entered the room ahead of Dawn. It was then that he spied a small door on the right. It was an unremarkable door, made of the same coloured wood as the panelling around the room – Arthur thought it might be oak – which made Arthur wonder if it had been closed until now. A shadow moved behind it and then Faith appeared in the doorway, a sword held a bit awkwardly in her hand. It looked as though she was purposefully keeping the blade from touching anything and Arthur couldn't help but wonder why. He was sure the young woman could handle a blade quite well and the last time he'd seen her, she was perfectly comfortable with one.

"Yo, you guys haven't forgotten about the demon back here, have you?" she said with an annoyed frown. As if on cue, a horrific scream echoed from the room behind her. Arthur winced. It sounded even worse this close to the source, the scratchy, inhuman pitch even more noticeable.

"Oh, right, the demon, how could we have possibly forgotten about the demon?" said the man with the eyepatch.

"'Cause there's always a demon," Dawn answered him. "It gets kinda mundane after a while."

"Trufax."

"I take it the preparations are done?" Rupert Giles asked Faith, ignoring the banter going on beside him.

"Yup, the swords are anointed-" Faith slightly raised the sword she was holding and Arthur noticed that the blade seemed to be coated with some sort of liquid. "-and the container's ready, so Sarah says we're good to go."

"Good, I'll just need a few moments to make sure Dawn understands the ritual."

"Cool, just don't take an eon; the circle's holding, but apparently the demon's getting stronger by the minute."

Rupert Giles nodded. Then he turned to Arthur.

"Um, unfortunately, sire, as you can hear this matter cannot be delayed," he said. "I'll have one of the girls show you-"

"Hey, Giles, why don't they stay and watch?" Dawn interrupted.

The man, Giles, looked to the girl in confusion.

"I was thinking that, you know, maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing for him to see magic being used for good for a change, since we don't have to hide what we're doing and all..."

She let the end of her sentence linger, but her eyes bore into his with a hidden message Arthur couldn't decipher. As it was, Arthur couldn't quite wrap his mind around the surreality of him requiring _permission_ to go anywhere or attend anything. He hadn't needed permission for anything since he'd achieved manhood.

"Very well, yes, I understand," Rupert Giles finally answered after a while. "Demon exorcism isn't exactly a spectator sport, but as long as he keeps out of the way, the prince and his companion can stay and watch, I suppose."

"Speaking of which, I don't think we got said companion's name..." the man with the eyepatch said.

"They didn't get yours either," Dawn commented as Giles began to make his way towards Faith. Arthur folded his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow (he knew it wasn't quite as effective as The Gauis Eyebrow, but hopefully it got the sentiment across).

"Oh, right, so they haven't." The man turned to Arthur and Merlin with a wide grin. "Sorry 'bout that. I'm Xander."

Arthur nodded in acknowledgement, before gesturing in Merlin's direction.

"This is my manservant, Merlin," he said.

The reaction was instantaneous. Xander's eyes widened and the entire room erupted into furious whispers. Arthur glowered at them, before turning to glare at Merlin. His manservant looked no different than before, except he seemed to be slightly terrified by all the attention he was suddenly receiving. Just what kind of an adviser was Merlin's counter-legend supposed to have been?

Even Rupert Giles had stopped abruptly and swung around to gape at him.

"Bit, 'ave you explained the 'father' thing yet?" Spike's voice suddenly sounded above the din in the room.

The quieted down again as Arthur blinked. He turned to look at the smirking vampire, who was now peeking out of the doorway from just behind Faith. He met eyes that were twinkling in amusement and, suddenly, Arthur realized what he was talking about. His face began to heat up as he remembered those first few moments inside the room.

"Father?" Xander asked, looking confused for a moment, before his face lit up. "Oh yeah! That's right, you called G-man here father when you first barged in!"

Arthur winced and quickly glanced to Rupert Giles, who looked like he too had forgotten that moment in the excitement that had followed.

"Um, yeah..." said Dawn with a chuckle. "See, the thing is that Giles here is kinda the splitting image of Arthur's father, King Uther Pendragon."

"Seriously?" Xander asked with an incredulous expression that quickly turned into a wide grin. "That's kinda cool."

"Uther Pendragon..." Giles breathed, looking positively thunderstruck for a few moments. "A-am I really?" A shy, happy little smile emerged on his face. "That's, ehem, I mean..."

"Aww, Giles, are you blushing?" Xander asked with a teasing grin.

"I most certainly am not!"

Xander winked mischievously at Arthur, who was barely suppressing a grin of his own. Because the man certainly _was_ blushing, if only slightly. Arthur forcibly shoved aside a sharp pang of jealousy at seeing the warm, friendly teasing and banter surrounding Rupert Giles. He knew the man was not his father; in fact, the only thing he seemed to have in common with his father was his face. His father would never allow anyone as close to him as Dawn and Xander clearly were, never allow anyone – not even Gaius, who Arthur felt was the closest thing he had to a friend – to speak to him so casually, not to mention tease him like this.

Arthur felt something bump his arm.

"It's amazing how much he looks like your father and yet doesn't at the same time, isn't it?" Merlin whispered. Arthur nodded absently.

And then jumped as another horrid scream tore through from the room.

"Okay, okay, we got it!" Xander exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "Geez, this demon's a real attention whore."

Somewhere, someone giggled as Giles cleared his throat.

"Xander, you take Prince Arthur and Merlin and make sure they stay out of the way," he said, frowning at Xander disapprovingly. His face was suddenly serious and his tone indicated he expected to be obeyed – for the first time, Rupert Giles _actually_ resembled Uther Pendragon. "Dawn, come with me."

"Hey, I thought I was the Holder of the Box!" Xander protested.

"It's a casket."

Xander rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure, whatever. That thing I'm supposed to be holding to catch the demon in once you guys have ousted it from its current hiding place."

"Not much of a hiding place if you all know about it," said Merlin.

Xander shrugged. "What can I say? Demons aren't the smartest bunch."

"Yeah, this one was less bright than usual," Spike called from the other room. "I mean, it was possessing a vase of all things."

Arthur had to admit that if he were to posses something, a breakable, inanimate object would most definitely not be his choice.

"Well, guess we'd better get in before they decide they don't need us after all," said Xander, motioning for Arthur and Merlin to follow him.

Arthur paused briefly before entering the room – not because he was nervous of course, just understandably wary of entering a room wherein magic would shortly be preformed.

The part of him that was the Crown Prince of Camelot wanted nothing more than to speak out against what was happening, because by not speaking out against what was about to happen, he was essentially condoning the use of magic. However, the part of him that was Arthur, the adventurous young man, happily bludgeoned the first part and locked it up into the deepest dungeon of his mind. For once, Merlin had actually said something rather wise: Arthur was not a prince here, he had no authority. And he'd be lying through his teeth if he said he'd never been the least bit curious about magic or felt a desire to see it up close in a way that didn't involve it trying to kill him.

The room was bigger than he'd expected it to be. Or perhaps it was simply not as cluttered as the previous room had been. The floor, ceiling and walls were all made of wood and there was a single, barred window on the far wall. However, what caught Arthur's attention were the symbols that looked as though they'd been burned into the wood of the walls and into an intricate circular design on the ceiling. He had no idea what any of the symbols meant, but they looked similar to what he'd seen in some of the designs the Celts used.

"They're wards," Xander answered him, before he'd even thought to ask. Arthur looked to him, but Xander just shrugged. "Sorry, that's about all I know. Willow made them with some of her witchy mojo and when she was done she said nothing could get in unless we wanted it to and nothing could get out once we put it in."

"It's powerful," said Merlin, his expression one of wide-eyed wonder. He must've felt Arthur's eyes on him, because suddenly he blinked and looked to Arthur. "I mean, not that I would actually know or anything. It just – it would have to be, right? To do what Xander says it does and keep demons and other evil things out..."

"As long as it works, you mean," said Arthur.

"Oh, it works all right," Xander assured him. "Our Wills is a magical powerhouse. Nothing can get past her wards." He paused. "Well, almost nothing. But anything that can get through is, like, superpowerful and can't really be stopped by much of anything, so we don't count those. We just avoid them and hope they don't notice us."

Arthur snorted and shook his head. A tactician, this man clearly was not. But he didn't comment any further as Xander ushered him and Merlin into the corner of the room. It was then that he finally noticed the girl sitting on the floor.

If he'd thought what Dawn was wearing was scandalous, then this girl was re-inventing the word. Her skirt was even shorter and was clearly not one meant for sitting in as it had ridden up to pretty much hip-height so that her underthings were clearly visible between parted thighs (was that pink lace?) and her shirt was red and practically see-through. Thankfully, she did have some sort of lacy contraption on that covered her breasts – not that it left much to the imagination, or anything at all to the imagination really.

However, any reactions he may have had to the barely-clan young woman were quelled the moment he looked higher and saw her face. Twin streaks of black poured down her cheeks from her eyes - which just so happened to be bright red. Blood red. Suddenly, they were looking directly at him, silent, unmoving, unblinking and assessing.

And then the girl grinned a toothy, snarling grin and Arthur nearly took a step back in shock. Because, despite the eyes and black streaks and messy hair, the girl looked rather pretty – if a bit on the skinny side. Her mouth, however, was like a festering swamp; her teeth were black and rotted and her tongue a mouldy grey-green.

Arthur was glad she was on the other side of the room, which meant he couldn't smell her breath.

"You don't belong here," a low voice growled and Arthur blinked twice before he realized it was coming from the girl. "Such a pretty thing, so far from home."

Her gaze swung to Merlin and Arthur breathed a sigh of relief.

"And you, are you his protector?" The girl licked her lips and Arthur felt his stomach turn at the gesture. "You'd better guard him well. He will not be allowed more than three lives."

He heard Merlin's sharp intake of breath, but didn't get a chance as it was in that moment that Xander returned to their side holding a casket made of dark wood.

"Wow, this demon really is dumb," the man said, shaking his head. Then he smiled reassuringly at them. "Don't worry, it's just heckling you. Only, it doesn't seem to realize you're only accessories here, not even close to the people it _should_ be distracting."

"How does it know we're from another dimension?" Arthur asked.

Xander shrugged. "It's a demon."

The girl screamed again, except this time the hideous-sounding scream dissolved into hysterical laughter.

Arthur couldn't help but stare at the girl. His eyes widened as she began to foam around the mouth, trickles of spit falling from the corners. She flailed her arms a few times and Arthur noticed they clasped in chains that were attached to the wall behind her. Looking down, he saw that her feet weren't bound, but she was sitting in the middle of a circle that looked like it had been drawn there in chalk. There were four symbols drawn outside the circle, spaced apart so that, were lines drawn between them, they would divide the circle into equal quarters. Beside each symbol, burned a thick, white candle.

"All right, positions everyone," Rupert Giles finally called. If he was at all unnerved by the girl's behaivour he was hiding it admirably well.

"It's showtime!" Xander said quietly as he took a deep breath and went to stand a few steps in front of Arthur and Merlin. The casket he was holding was now open and facing away from him.

"What's the box – er, casket - for anyway?" Merlin whispered to Xander as he stepped up to him, craning his neck over the man's shoulder to take a closer look at it.

"Hmm? Oh, it's to catch the demon. See, those guys are going exorcise the demon out of the girl. Then, Spike and Faith will swing their specially anointed swords to wound it. This box here has some sort of spells in the wood or something, to make the demon think it's a safe place to hide. Once the demon's inside the box, I slam it shut and, viola, we have ourselves one caged demon."

Arthur frowned.

"Why do you want to catch it?" he asked. "Wouldn't it be simpler for Spike and Faith to just kill it?"

Xander looked over his shoulder as he answered, keeping one eye on what was going on around the possessed girl.

"'Cause when it comes out of the girl it'll be incorporeal. It's why we had to anoint the swords in the first place, or they may as well be trying to cut the wind, which is only possible if you're an anime character. Sadly, the anointed swords, while cool and slightly smelly, can't hurt it enough to actually kill it. Hence the box trick. See, once it's in the box, then we can burn the thing."

"And that will kill the demon?" asked Merlin.

"Yup."

"Couldn't you just burn the girl?" Arthur asked.

He regretted the question the moment it was out of his mouth. Suddenly he was on the receiving end of two identical, accusing glares – which was just a little eerie, since one of those glares was being done with only one eye.

"Because we're in the business of saving people here," Xander growled out. "And the girl may be a bit of a conceited bitch, but she's an innocent - wasn't even the one, who knocked the stupid vase over. She was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Silence!"

Anything Arthur was going to say in his defence stopped in his throat at the command given in a familiar voice. He looked to Rupert Giles, who was standing by the circle containing the demon.

"We're going to start now and that means no one speaks until we're done-" He glowered at their corner – and, oh, now _there_ was a familiar expression. "- do I make myself clear?"

"As mud," Xander answered with a grin.

Giles returned his attention to the demon.

Arthur stepped cautiously to the side to get a better view of what was happening. Giles, Dawn and one other woman stood at equal lengths apart around the circle. Dawn was now holding the ancient tome and was watching the older man, as though waiting for something. Spike and Faith were standing on opposite sides of the circle, several paces behind the first three people. They looked relaxed, but Arthur could tell they were watching everything closely – if Xander was right, they wouldn't be needed just yet.

Rupert Giles took a deep breath and then nodded to the other two standing around the circle. The three of them began to chant, their voices the only noise in the room.

Arthur didn't quite know what he'd been expecting, but for some reason it hadn't occurred to him that the man, who looked like his father, would be one of the magic users. For a while, Arthur couldn't see anything else. In some part of his mind, old lessons were remembered for long enough for him to recognize the language they were chanting in as Latin, but the words slid across his mind without being properly acknowledged.

Then the howling began.

Horrible, inhuman howling tore out of the girl's throat. Arthur winced at the noise and barely suppressed the urge to cover his ears. The longer it continued, the less human it sounded, until it closely resembled the screech of metal upon stone. Arthur kept his eyes glued to Rupert Giles, not being able to help himself from admiring the man's firm, unflinching stance as he chanted. Even Dawn, he noticed, was managing to remain calm.

Suddenly, the howling stopped and Arthur turned his eyes once more to the girl. He gasped in surprise, reaching automatically for the sword that was, as he full well knew, not actually at his side - or even in the same dimension for that matter. The girl's eyes were bleeding. Lines of dark red liquid trickled down her cheeks, mixing with the black already there and further staining skin that looked decidedly more yellow than it had a moment ago.

The demon snarled out something in a harsh-sounding language Arthur had never before heard the likes of.

"Shit," he heard Xander mutter.

"What's going on?" Arthur demanded, speaking in a low voice as he took a step towards Xander. "Is something wrong?"

Xander tilted his head slightly backwards toward Arthur, but never took his eyes off the circle of chanters.

"Looks like we've got ourselves a magically-inclined one," he said. "He's counter-chanting. I think."

That didn't sound good. Arthur knew magic-using humans were bad and demons were bad, so he didn't even want to contemplate just how bad a magic-using demon would be – like a griffin that could turn people into frogs.

The three chanters did not look very worried about the new development, however, and merely began to chant louder, their voices echoing within the confines of the room. The harsh syllables of the demon's language mixed with the voices of the three humans to form an odd sort of mix of sound that almost sounded melodic.

Arthur didn't quite notice when the demon stopped chanting. Rather, he first noticed the girl was shaking as she swayed slightly back and forth, her pupils dilated to the point of almost over taking the redness in her eyes, as though she were deep inside a dark cavern, not a brightly lit room. And then, with a violent scream, the girl sprang to her feet and surged forward.

Arthur gasped and took a startled step backwards, eyes wide. The girl's face was twisted into an expression of pure, inhuman malice as she snarled at Giles with black teeth. The chains around her wrists had stopped her from going beyond the circle drawn on the ground, though she was straining against them as much as she could (Arthur noticed with horror the claws that now extended from the girl's hands and immediately scanned the room for a spare sword).

Rupert Giles had faltered only slightly in his chanting, a stubborn set to his shoulders facing the demon's sudden rage like a wall. Dawn had jumped slightly in surprise, however managed to recover quickly enough and resumed chanting with a voice that was just as firm as before, if a bit louder. Arthur hadn't been paying attention to the older woman, but by the time he glanced in her direction, she too was standing resolute and chanting with the other two.

The possessed girl then took a step back, towards the centre of her circle. The snarl on her face turned into a smirk, which looked more human though no less malicious. Arthur saw her grip the chains attached to her wrist and then with a loud scream, that was at once both a roar and a screech, she tore the chains out of the wall. Terror froze him to the spot and out of the corner of his eye he vaguely registered Xander tensing.

Once again, the demon lunged, though this time for Dawn. Dawn's eyes widened and Arthur saw fear shining in them, but she never stopped chanting. It wasn't until a hand grabbed Arthur and pulled him backwards that he realized he'd been moving forwards. He looked to Xander in confusion, but the man looked to him with grim eyes and shook his head. He heard a scream of frustration come from the circle and turned to look. The demon was still inside the circle, banging against the air at its edge as if there was an invisible wall in its way to freedom. Arthur relaxed minutely as he realized the circle was probably a magical barrier to keep the demon in one place while they exorcised it. What a horribly useful thing – rather unfortunate that it required magic or else he'd suggest it to his father as soon as he got back to Camelot.

Arthur didn't take his eyes off the three chanters and so saw the moment when Rupert Giles met Dawn's eyes and then the other woman's and nodded to them. The next moment, the words they were chanting changed.

The demon covered its ears and screamed.

Arthur had no idea how long this went on for. The three magic users continued chanting and demon alternated between silent watching, violent thrashing and inhuman screaming. Around them, the room kept getting colder and colder until Arthur could see his breath in the air and feel the sweat freezing to his skin. The tension was so thick he wished had a knife or a sword to cut through it, or at least give him the illusion that he could be of some use. What he hated most of all was the waiting for others, hoping for their success while he stood idly by.

Dawn, Rupert Giles and the woman were obviously tiring, sweat trickled down their brows despite the cold. Even from the other side of the room, Arthur could see Dawn shivering as her fingers clung to the tome like a lifeline. Yet, they kept chanting, voices never faltering even as they began sounding hoarse.

Inside the circle, the demon – who now only vaguely resembled the girl it'd possessed – circled them, like a caged animal. It spoke words in its own language, a language Arthur decided that sounded like nothing short of pure evil and suddenly he knew he'd never see the words of the Old Religion in the same light ever again. Because no magic he'd ever experienced had felt like this.

Suddenly, Rupert Giles's voice boomed through the room and the two women raised theirs to match. The flames of the half-burnt out candles shot upwards, becoming four columns of fire and casting an angry light onto the faces of the chanters. The flames died down only moments later and as they died down, the demon fell to its knees and gripped the sides of its head as it screamed.

Arthur winced at the noise, only years of training preventing him from automatically covering his ears. The screaming continued. Loud, painful and inhuman, it went on and on and with it the tension in the room increased until Arthur could feel his ears popping with it.

"Damn, I wish Wills was here," he heard Xander hiss from beside him. One glance told him that Xander was feeling the tension just as much as he was, his knuckles were white where they gripped the wooden box tightly.

Then the lights flickered.

Arthur noticed that Faith and Spike were now standing ready, their swords held in front of them and waiting. Both were as still as statues, eyes fixed on the demon in the circle. The screaming transformed into a high-pitched howl. And then the older woman threw something into the circle, a fine powder that landed over the demon.

It went silent, its eyes bulging out comically, mouth open wide in all its foul glory. Once again, Giles and the others changed the words of their chant. No sooner did they do so, the temperature of the room began to increase – to Arthur's immense relief.

The demon thrashed, arms held up in front of itself and its head shaking from side to side as though it were trying to physically ward off the assault against it. Then it threw its head head back and screamed one last time, the demonic depth to the scream gradually ebbing away as the voice coming from the girl's mouth started sounding more human by the second. When the demon finally left the girl it was like dark green steam pouring out through her mouth, eyes and ears. The girl – now free of any demonic features – spasmed once, before retching all over the floor and then slumping to the ground, unconscious.

Meanwhile, the steam-like substance gathered together and began to take on a shape – Arthur thought he saw four horns before Spike sliced it apart with his sword. A relatively quiet (and a bit pathetic-sounding if truth be told) scream came from the demon steam as it quickly escaped to the side and began to gather again. Unfortunately for the demon, Faith was on it in an instant.

Xander now stepped forward, holding the box in front of him, one hand on the bottom and the other on the side, grasping the edge of the lid.

It took Spike and Faith only a matter several strikes to herd the steam in Xander's direction. Arthur saw the moment the demon noticed the box, because it stilled in the air for several seconds – like a hunting dog scenting a rabbit – and then it made straight for them. Arthur took a deep breath to calm himself as he watched the stream zoom towards him, a split-second of doubt crossing his mind: what if the demon decided that possessing one of them would be more fun than getting stuck inside a box? Thankfully, the plan worked and there was a loud bang as Xander slammed the lid shut, trapping the demon inside.

"Got it!" he yelled. A moment later, there was a girl by his side holding out a heavy metal chain, which she then proceeded to wrap around the box.

The entire room breathed a sigh of relief. Dawn slumped to her knees with a soft thud, looking exhausted. Arthur ran to her side. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a few of the girls from the other room had now entered and were gently easing the previously-possessed girl's wrists out of the chains.

"Whew, well that was fun," Dawn quipped, sounding out of breath and raspy. "Let's not ever do that again."

"I'll certainly second that," said Rupert Giles, looking like he was barely standing himself.

"I never realized magic was so... difficult," said Arthur as he helped Dawn to her feet. Dawn snorted.

"The moron that told you magic was easy has either never used magic in his life or was lying through his teeth to make himself look cool," she said.

"But it's easier if you're more powerful, right?" he asked, suddenly feeling curious despite himself. He'd never had anyone to ask about magic, who wouldn't just give him his father's line of 'all magic is evil'.

"Not really," Xander answered for her. Arthur looked up to meet the man's eye. "I mean, sure it makes casting powerful spells easier, but it's also harder to control and easier to loose yourself in."

A shadow passed over Xander's face and Arthur got the impression this was a lesson learned through experience. He would've asked more, but Rupert Giles spoke first.

"Magic is about consequences," he said as he helped the other woman clear away the candles while one of the girls from before was cleaning the floor. He turned to Arthur with grim eyes. "Especially powerful magic. Magic can do many things, can defy the laws of nature even, but not without a price."

Oddly enough, Arthur found that rather reassuring.

"Um, Giles, should we be worried that they're still here?" Faith pipped up.

"Hm?" Giles looked to the young woman (who had propped her sword up against the far corner of the room immediately following the demon's capture). Faith gestured to Arthur and Merlin. "Oh, yes, of course..."

He took a cloth out of a his jacket pocket and proceeded to clean his glasses with it, looking thoughtful as he did. Once he apparently deemed them clean enough he replaced the cloth and put the glasses back on, before speaking.

"Yes, well, it is rather late and it's been a long night, so I suppose the best thing would be to prepare a couple of extra beds and then tackle this particular problem in the morning with fresh eyes and minds and all that. Xander, you can share with Andrew for the night."

"I'm definitely not going to argue with that," said Dawn (while Xander groaned loudly) just before yawning. She turned to Arthur and Merlin. "Hey, you two want something to drink or, uh, eat or something? I think I definitely need a huge mug of hot chocolate."

"Dawn, whatever you give them, make sure you keep it simple," Giles called over his shoulder as he left the room. "They'll have a hard time digesting most of our modern food because of all the preservatives, extra hormones and colouring we put into it."

"Well gee, now doesn't that just make me feel good about what I eat," said Xander.

"Um, right..." Dawn looked uncertain for a moment. "So, uh, tea?" she asked.

"Tea sounds good?" Arthur replied absently.

Half an hour later found Arthur and Merlin sitting at a round, wooden table in what Dawn assured them was a kitchen, yet looked as far from anything Arthur recognized as such – there didn't seem to be anywhere to light a fire for one. Each of them were cradling one of the most brightly-coloured mugs Arthur had ever seen filled with tea (that came in small bags, which he had to concede was actually quite clever). They were alone as Dawn had left them a short while ago to change into something more comfortable and help Xander set up beds for them.

Arthur was actually rather glad for the calm. Everything had happened so quickly, he hadn't had a chance to properly think about what it all meant. Seeing the future in and of itself was exciting and he couldn't wait to get Dawn or one of the others to show him more (he was particularly intrigued by the big white crate in the corner that kept things cold and by the lights that turned on with the flick of what Dawn had told him was called a switch (he flicked said switch a few times... to make sure he could do it himself, because what if it didn't work for people from other dimensions or from the past...it was certainly not because he found it amusing no matter what Merlin said). However, somehow, the future and all its fascinating aspects seemed to pale in comparison to the magic he'd witnessed.

Because, try as he might, he couldn't call what he'd seen evil. And he certainly couldn't call Dawn or Rupert Giles evil either; he'd seen how much effort they'd put into saving that girl's life. Evil people didn't go to those lengths to save someone.

But if they weren't evil, if what he'd seen them do wasn't evil... then that meant that maybe, quite possibly, his father might just be somewhat wrong.

He felt curious eyes on him and looked up. Merlin's eyes darted back down to looking into his tea. Arthur sighed. Merlin had barely spoken a word since the exorcism had ended except to thank Dawn quietly for his tea. He kept glancing at Arthur, yet was unwilling to make eye-contact. As Arthur studied his manservant he noticed the boy somehow seemed smaller than usual, his normally-clumsy, colt-like limbs were held uncharacteristically still and his muscles were tense with anxiousness. Arthur could've sworn that even those ridiculously large ears were drooping slightly. As much as he appreciated being given the space to think about what he'd just witnessed, Arthur was finding this silent, withdrawn Merlin a bit unnerving.

Merlin looked up again, his eyes widening when he realized Arthur was looking right at him. He quickly looked away.

"Mer-lin," Arthur said, drawing out the syllables of the name in annoyance. "You look like you have something to say. And while I appreciate this demonstration of your ability to not speak for more than ten seconds, you are by far the most distracting silent person I have ever encountered. Which is something I don't have patience for tonight, so out with it. What's gotten that poor befuddled mind of yours so tied up?"

"Er," Merlin looked a bit taken aback. "I just... well, I was wondering how you were doing. I mean, there's a lot to take in with the, uh, well the magic and all that..."

Arthur felt fondness flow through him, tickling his soul with fuzzy edges. Of course. Merlin's best friend, Will, had been a sorcerer. Seeing magic being used so openly had probably reminded Merlin of him. He remembered the slightly heartbroken look in Merlin's eyes when he'd watched over his childhood friend's pyre and listened to Arthur condemn Will for sorcery despite owing him his life. Arthur had had no choice, though. He couldn't let Merlin think even for a moment that practising magic was forgivable given extenuating circumstances – the last thing Arthur needed was for his own manservant to start practising magic in some sort of misguided sympathy for his dead friend.

"It was interesting," he replied, trying to figure out just how to word it. "Different from anything I've seen before."

"It was nice that they managed to save the girl."

"Yes. Yes, it was." He made a frustrated noise and covered his face with his right hand. "I don't know Merlin, I just don't know. Magic is evil, it corrupts people. And, yes, Rupert Giles and Dawn and that other woman worked hard to save that girl, but if it wasn't for magic that girl wouldn't need rescuing in the first place!"

When Arthur removed his hand again, he saw Merlin frowning.

"But it wasn't magic," he said. "It was a demon."

"A magical creature then. It's all magic in the end. And magic is, inherently evil no matter what it happens to be used for."

Except that he knew it wasn't that simple and saying it out loud wasn't making his newfound doubt go away. Instead, he kept seeing the whirlwind that helped save a village from bandits and a small, blue ball of light that led him out of a dark cave to safety.

And now Merlin was looking at him as though he didn't believe Arthur believed what he was saying. Dammit, Arthur liked him better when he was being actively quiet!

Suddenly, the kitchen door burst open and a head of large, bouncy curls bounded into the room. Arthur stood, instinctively stepping forward so as to bring attention to himself with the movement and away from Merlin. The man, who'd entered, took the bait without so much as a pause.

"Oh my God!" he exclaimed in a voice that was very nearly a squeal. "You- you're Arthur right? Like Arthur Pendragon?"

All Arthur could do in the face of this young man's – for he couldn't be any older than Merlin – bright-eyed and very energetic enthusiasm was nod. The man grinned.

"I'm Andrew," he said. "I just got back with the other slayers and heard about what happened. This is, like, the coolest thing ever!"

He looked like a child, who had just discovered the castle cook's secret stash of honey cakes. Then his eyes slid to Merlin and they widened in surprise. And began to impossibly shine even brighter.

"Then that means you're Merlin?" he asked cautiously, practically vibrating with pent-up energy.

Merlin, meanwhile, looked like a rabbit standing before a room-full of knights, who hadn't seen meat in days. Arthur cleared his throat.

"Yes, he's my manservant, Merlin," he said. "Why does everyone seem so-"

Arthur was cut off as the man squealed. Arthur stared at him, baffled that such a high-pitched sound could come out of the throat of a man. But then the bundle of enthusiastic curls pounced on Merlin, grabbing his hand and shaking it vigorously.

"Wow, oh wow," he exclaimed. "I can't believe it! I seriously can't believe I'm meaning THE Merlin, the most powerful wizard in, like, ever!"

Arthur blinked and then snickered. This was what the fuss was about? This dimension's Merlin was a sorcerer? Well, clearly that was the second big difference between the two dimensions. That any of them thought his Merlin could possibly be a sorcerer was utterly ridiculous and he would make sure to set things straight just as soon as Dawn or Xander returned to the kitchen.

Then he looked at Merlin and the laughter that had been bubbling in his throat froze. All it took was one look at the absolute horror on Merlin's face and Arthur felt something inside him shatter into a thousand pieces.

* * *

Yes evil cliffhanger is very evil. But you have to admit that was a great place to leave it. =D


	9. Merlin's Encounter

It's my birthday today, so you all get a present! That's right, exactly one week later you all get not one, but _tw_o chapters! Just don't expect the next one so fast... Yeah... Anyway, thanks to everyone, who reviewed the last chapter! And to Glastig, my amazing beta. =D

Disclaimer: Still don't own anything you recognize.

* * *

**Key in the Kingdom**

**Merlin's Encounter**

_Arthur was cut off as the man squealed. Arthur stared at him, baffled that such a high-pitched sound could come out of the throat of a man. But then the bundle of enthusiastic curls pounced on Merlin, grabbing his hand and shaking it._

"_Wow, oh wow," he exclaimed. "I can't believe it! I seriously can't believe I'm meaning THE Merlin, the most powerful wizard in, like, ever!"_

_Arthur blinked and then snickered. This was what the fuss was about? This dimension's Merlin was a sorcerer? Well, clearly that was the second big difference between the two dimensions. That any of them thought his Merlin could possibly be a sorcerer was utterly ridiculous and he would make sure to set things straight just as soon as Dawn or Xander returned to the kitchen._

_Then he looked at Merlin and the laughter that had been bubbling in his throat froze. All it took was one look at the absolute horror on Merlin's face and Arthur felt something inside him shatter into a thousand pieces._

Merlin knew he should be denying it, should be laughing and telling the man he had the wrong person. But he couldn't find his voice, couldn't remember how to force his lips to laugh. By the time he managed to tear his mind away from the bright, excited eyes of the curly-haired boy, the moment had passed. He looked to Arthur and knew it was too late.

When Merlin had burst into the throne room and declared himself a sorcerer to save Gwen from execution, Arthur had laughed. He wasn't laughing now. His eyes were emotionless as they stared at him. Merlin's breath lodged in his throat, for where most people would see a neutral facade, he saw barely-controlled rage simmering through the prince.

"You lied to me," the words finally came, cold as early morning frost. "You've been lying to me since the moment we met." A slight pause for breath and then a hiss: "Sorcerer."

"A-Arthur, I-I..." Merlin began, having no idea what to say. He could explain that he'd only used his magic to help protect Camelot, could tell Arthur how many times he'd saved his life... but would that truly help? Would it make a difference? It wouldn't change the lying. Or that he was breaking the king's law.

"Andrew!"

The sudden scream managed to surprise both of them out of their staring contest, but not even the kitchen door crashing open did anything for the tension in the room. Dawn dashed into the room with Xander and Faith at her heels. She looked from Arthur to Merlin to Andrew and growled.

"Andrew, exactly what part of 'magic is illegal and punished by death' did you not get?" she demanded as she walked up to the curly-haired boy – who did look a bit terrified now – and grabbed him roughly by the ear.

"Ow, ow!" he whined. "Bu-but it's _Arthur_ and _Merlin_, they're, like, Frodo and Sam o-or Abott and Costello; you can't just have one without the other! They're inseparable, like destiny! Like two sides of the same coin!"

Merlin blinked and stared at Andrew.

"Two sides of the same coin? What does that even mean?" Xander asked.

Merlin agreed. He wanted to know what it meant too. Andrew's answer made even less sense to him, though, so instead Merlin tuned him out in favour of sneaking a glance at Arthur. Arthur caught him looking and his eyes narrowed, no longer emotionless, but filled with anger. Merlin winced.

He supposed he should be somewhat glad they weren't in Camelot at this very moment and Arthur's sword was.

"So you were all in on this," Arthur finally said in a low voice. Everybody heard him anyway. Dawn met his gaze with a raised eyebrow that would've made Gaius proud. "All those lovely little stories about Merlin being my adviser, my father's adviser even, those were all lies?"

"No, they weren't," she answered, refusing to back down from his furious glare. "Merlin or Myrridin or Ambrosius was Uther Pendragon's friend and adviser, who later helped raise Arthur and advised him. And, yes, he was known as a powerful sorcerer, who could see the future and do all sorts of other cool things, but more importantly, he was always one of the Pendragons' strongest allies."

Arthur looked stunned for a moment. Merlin allowed himself to hope that maybe, just maybe, Arthur might understand. Because confusion was good, it meant the prince was thinking. Sadly, the first embers of hope were smothered when Arthur once again looked at Merlin.

"I trusted you," he said and Merlin thought he heard a slight crack in his voice. "I allowed you to treat me as no other servant would dare. Was it all an enchantment? Is anything you've ever told me real?"

"Of course it is!" Merlin protested, the helplessness of a few moments ago gone in an instant. Did Arthur really think so little of him? Hadn't the prat admitted just a few moments ago that maybe his father was wrong? "If I had enchanted you then I've certainly done a shoddy job of it seeing as how you're still a prat! Do you think my life's goal is to be your servant and shine your shoes and wash your dirty socks? Or are you saying that I'm using my position to have an inappropriate liaison with your armour?"

Merlin paused, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He felt hot and his heart was beating as though he'd just run up all the castle stairs from the dungeons (which he had done before, so he knew full well how it felt). He needed to calm down. The last time he'd felt angry someone had died.

"How should I know? I don't endeavour to understand the minds of sorcerers. Maybe you're just biding your time until the right moment comes so that you can kill me and my father and usurp the throne!"

Merlin's eyes snapped open. He looked directly at Arthur, his eyes narrowed and probably seething with anger. His mind was a whirlwind of disjointed thoughts, but amongst the fury one thought screamed out the loudest: 'This is the prat I was willing to die for?'

The heat inside his mind increased until, suddenly, something exploded. Merlin jumped at the surprised shriek that followed, thrown out of his own thoughts for long enough to realize the explosion hadn't been in his mind. Rather, it had been the mug Arthur had been drinking his tea out of.

"Oookay, so I think it's time for both of you to take a time out," said Xander loudly, stepping between the two of them. "Pissed-off sorcerer exploding stuff accidentally is not going to end well. Especially since there are things in here that should really not be exploded and he doesn't know which ones they are."

"Unhand me!" Arthur yelled at Faith, who was now gripping his shoulders and steering him – rather effortlessly it seemed – towards the door. "I hardly see how that's my fault! I'm not the one keeping secrets and doing magic-"

"I'm not gonna care whose fault it is, yo, but if Merlin there accidentally explodes the coffeepot then I'm gonna knock the both of you unconscious and feed ya to Spike!" said Faith.

"Xander!" Dawn called.

"Don't worry, Dawnie," the one-eyed man said with a slight wave. "Faith and I'll take care of the princess here. You and Andrew help Merlin out."

"You'll have to bunk with him too."

"Oh, so you mean this was all good for something after all?"

Xander left them with one last, reassuring grin before the kitchen door closed behind them. Dawn sighed and then turned to Merlin.

"Merlin, I'm so sorry."

"Yeah, I-I'm sorry too," said Andrew, wringing his hands together as his eyes shifted towards the back door. "I kinda got a bit ahead of myself and just sort of assumed it would be okay, because he's Arthur and you're Merlin and together you're both legends and just totally awesome and please don't turn me into a slimy crawly thing."

Merlin blinked at the very odd and very fast apology.

"Please do," Dawn deadpanned. "Only could you please make it a small slimy crawly thing? 'Cause as much as he deserves to be turned into one, I don't really like big slimy crawly things, so a smaller one would better, preferably of a size that could be accidentally stepped on."

"Hey!"

Merlin chuckled; he couldn't help himself. And then the chuckle grew into laughter, because, really, the conversation was just so absurd and the two of them were so calmly discussing his magic and what he could do with it. If only Arthur could've taken it all so calmly... He wasn't sure when the laughter turned to tears, but suddenly his vision was blurry and he could feel moisture on his cheeks.

"Oh Merlin," Dawn whispered just before she embraced him. He leaned his forehead against her shoulder and allowed himself to be held.

"It's going to be alright," she whispered. "He'll turn around, you'll see. He-Arthur just needs a bit of time and space. He's a good man, so trust in him to do what's right."

His anger having dissipated as quickly as it had arisen, all Merlin was left with now was the dull pain in his chest. So he wept and listened to Dawn's words, knowing in his heart she was right, but not quite able to dismiss the doubts surfacing from the dark depths of his mind. He could no longer trust the dragon's words, but could he trust his heart?

Finally, the flow of tears stopped and Merlin's sobs quietened. The pain in his chest was still there, somewhere, but numbed by a hollowness that covered his whole being. With a final sigh, he stepped away from Dawn.

"Feeling better?" she asked.

Merlin looked up at her and stared silently into her concerned blue eyes before nodding. He glimpsed towards Andrew, who was standing half-way across the room looking very awkward.

"You know, I don't actually know how," he said in a raspy voice.

"Huh?" said Dawn and he looked back to her.

"To turn someone into something slimy; I don't know any spells for that."

Dawn laughed. "Aw, shucks. Maybe next time then."

Merlin smiled weakly.

Merlin had a hard time falling asleep that night. It wasn't just the strange surroundings, or the odd noises and lights (little pinpricks of red and green that shone into the semi-dark room), or even how the outside never got pitch black the way it should have without any sort of stars or moon (Merlin looked outside and saw clouds, but even they didn't seem very dark). And it certainly wasn't the bed, because by the gods of the Old Religion, Merlin had never lain in such a comfortable bed in all his life! He only wished his mind wasn't such a whirlwind of thoughts so he could fully appreciate the luxurious feeling of this heavenly creation.

Across the room, Andrew had finally fallen asleep some time ago. The chattery blond hadn't stopped apologizing until Merlin finally managed to quiet him by telling him he was tired and wanted to rest. This had been especially hard to take when Dawn had left the bedchamber in order to go see how Arthur was doing. She'd then reported – with a roll of her eye – that Arthur was working out his anger and frustration by sparring with Faith. Which wasn't quite helping him loose his frustration so much as channelling it into a different sort of frustration, because he wasn't able to beat her strength, speed and unpredictable moves.

He must've eventually succumbed to the comfort of his borrowed bed, because suddenly he was opening his eyes to bright sunlight and birdsong – and odd whizzing noises he couldn't identify.

Merlin rolled over and noticed Andrew wasn't in his bed. Throwing the blankets aside, Merlin got up with a yawn. He padded to the door and took a deep breath before opening it resolutely, valiantly ignoring the slight shaking in his hand.

The hallway was silent, everyone apparently either already awake and gone or still fast asleep. He walked over the blue door at the left-hand end of the hallway (there was a pink one at the other end of the hallway, which Merlin had been told to avoid like the plague), which Andrew had shown him yesterday. He had called it a 'bathroom', which made sense since it had a bath in it. One that could be filled with warm water without the need to lug barrels of it up five flights of stairs from the kitchens. And then there was the 'shower' that sprayed a person with warm water.

If Merlin hadn't been so distracted, he was sure he would've loved to experiment and try all the strange things out to see how they worked. As it was, he only managed to push down the lever on the 'toilet' after himself and observe the swirl of water that poured into the porcelain bowl and flushed everything away. He wondered idly where it all went.

It felt so odd to be able to make a room bright with light and watch water pour out from seemingly nowhere without doing any magic to make it happen. And he knew there wasn't any magic involved, because he would've felt it.

Merlin slowly made his way out of the bathroom and towards the stairs, pausing only for a moment outside the closed door to the room he'd been told Arthur was sharing with Xander. He reached the top of the stairs and was about to head down the stairs when said door opened and someone dashed out into the hallway.

Merlin froze, his heart suddenly beating a marathon. He clutched the railway in an attempt to appear less nervous than he felt.

"Merlin!" a voice called out. A voice that was most definitely not Arthur.

Merlin took a deep breath before gathering up some cheer from somewhere and turning to Xander.

"Oh, good morning, Xander," he said. "I-is Arthur still asleep?"

"Uhh..." Xander looked a bit unsure for a moment. "I'm thinking no. Or at least he's not sleeping in his bed."

Merlin frowned.

"That's strange. He usually likes to sleep in when he can. And then yells at me when I let him, because he wasn't woken up on time."

Xander chuckled. Merlin smiled at the one-eyed man, who looked like he'd just woken up and literally leapt out of bed before doing anything else. Suddenly, it occurred to Merlin that Xander had been one of the last people to see Arthur before he'd gone to sleep.

"So, er, how was Arthur doing last night?" he asked, lowering his eyes to stare at the rather fascinating designs on the carpet. He didn't want to see pity in Xander's eyes.

Xander sighed and Merlin tensed, bracing himself instinctively against the inevitable bad news.

"I think he understands the lying," Xander said quietly. "I mean, he'd have to be a bit of an idiot not to once he realized how many executions you'd witnessed. And he mentioned your friend, Will, and how he was a sorcerer too or something and, well, let's just say he's not exactly happy you lied to him, but he's willing to listen to your reasons."

Merlin let out the breath he'd been holding. Arthur was willing to listen. Merlin would tell him everything, swore to himself then and there he would answer any question Arthur asked. Listening was a first step, because if Arthur listened then maybe he'd eventually be able to forgive as well.

"A-and the magic?" Merlin whispered.

"That might be a bit more of a problem," Xander admitted and Merlin closed his eyes, wishing he could shut out reality. "See, I think the main problem is that he doesn't understand magic. I think you have a chance though." Merlin looked up, meeting Xander's eyes. "You'll have to do a lot of explaining and teaching, but he's not a lost cause. But... I think you already know that or you wouldn't be here, right?"

Xander smiled kindly at Merlin and Merlin couldn't help but smile back.

"Yeah, I wouldn't. He's a prat, but I think he really might just be a great king one day."

Xander grinned and then yawned widely. "Alright, well, what do you say we go find this once and future prat. And coffee. I am in dire need of caffineage."

Merlin had no idea what this coffee thing was, but he did feel a bit calmer descending the stairs with Xander by his side. Maybe Arthur wouldn't actually kill him with other people close by. And, yes, Merlin realized his thoughts could be considered slightly cowardly, but he was more concerned with his head remaining attached to his shoulders. It looked rather good there if he did say so himself.

At the bottom of the stairs they ran into Spike, who was just leaving the kitchen with a mug of something brown with little white pieces floating in it. It was a curious-looking concoction and smelled amazing, but Merlin didn't recognize it at all. It hadn't even occurred to Merlin that even the food would be different in the future and suddenly, he realized he really did want to see this strange world that was the future – not just catch a few glimpses, but truly see what humans had managed to accomplish that was so much like magic, but wasn't.

"Hey, what's with the early morning coco, bleach boy?" Xander asked, shaking Merlin from his thoughts.

Spike shrugged.

"Dawn couldn't sleep, needed some comfort food and it's all I know how to make," he said.

Xander snickered. Spike threw him an annoyed glare as he took a sip of the coco.

"So, Dawn's awake then?"

"Yeah, she is. Didn't you run into her on your way down?"

"Nope." Xander looked to Merlin. "Did you see her?"

Merlin shook his head, before turning to the vampire. "Um, Spike, do you happen to know where Arthur is?"

Spike rolled his eyes.

"'e's undergoing Andrew-therapy. Not likely to ever be the same again, I'd reckon."

"Andrew-therapy?"

Xander groaned and ran his right hand over his face. "Oh God no, please say you're joking."

Merlin looked from one to the other. This Andrew-therapy thing sounded rather bad. He wondered whether he should be worried for Arthur.

"Is that dangerous?" he asked.

"Only to our sanity," Xander answered.

"Don't worry, mate, Andrew's mostly 'armless. Except by accident."

"Oh."

Merlin jumped as a muffled shout came from somewhere behind him. He whirled around and stared at the ordinary-looking door behind him. He heard voices – a lot of screaming, yelling voices – and music as well as the distinct sound of clashing swords coming from behind the door. Merlin blinked. Just what the hell was behind the door?

Then he heard another, clearer, voice and although he couldn't understand the words, he recognized it. Arthur. Arthur was behind the door with all the yelling and screaming and clashing swords. Merlin didn't think. He just moved. Turned the doorknob and opened the door.

"Arthur!"

Arthur casually turned his head from where he was sitting on a large, blue, stuffed chair that looked like it was more cushion than chair. Andrew was sitting on a similar chair, except his looked like it could fit at least four people. Neither one of them looked like they were in any danger. Or anything remotely resembling danger. Except, perhaps, from burning their tongues on whatever that steaming liquid in their mugs was.

"Merlin?" said Arthur. Suddenly the noise in the background stopped, the sudden silence shocking Merlin for a moment. Arthur, meanwhile, looked to Andrew and then to the wall he was facing. "Oh, you stopped them?"

"Just paused," Andrew answered. "I can turn it on again whenever."

"Really? That's very useful. That way you don't lose the flow of the story while you yell at your servant, who's _supposed_ to be paying attention to you and making sure your goblet is never empty, to bring you more mead."

Arthur smirked as he said it. Merlin cocked his head to see if maybe the situation would make more sense from a different angle. Not that he wasn't glad that Arthur was looking relaxed and not furious like he had the last time Merlin had seen him, but this utter shift in mood was disconcerting. They hadn't enchanted him, had they? A quick glance to Xander and Spike found them looking just as stunned as Merlin felt.

"Bloody 'ell," said Spike quietly. "It actually worked."

"That, my friend, is the sure sign of the apocalypse," said Xander, shaking his head in disbelief. "And that I really need coffee. If I don't get coffee this very minute my brain might explode from thinking too much on a non-caffeinated stomach. I wonder if there are any donuts left."

"Depends on whether Bit ate them all."

"Right, fingers crossed then."

As the two of them walked out of the room again, Merlin finally noticed the large, black picture frame on the wall opposite him. At least it looked like a picture frame. It was hanging on the wall and there was a picture of some sort in it, though more life-like than any he'd ever seen before. It looked a bit like the small pictures that were attached to some of the doors upstairs. Except those looked posed, more planned. What he was seeing now looked like someone had simply frozen a moment in time without telling the people involved. Like when Merlin managed to stop time and everyone around him was still mid-movement. It was during a battle no less. There was an old man in white riding a white horse surrounded by a group of young men, their swords clashing with some sort of ugly-looking creatures Merlin sincerely hoped didn't live anywhere near Camelot.

"Merlin!"

Merlin started at the shout and looked to Arthur, who looked rather annoyed.

"Yes, sire?"

"You seem rather too enthralled with that image there," he said. Now Merlin could also see the sparkle of amusement in Arthur's eyes. "And it's not even moving either."

Merlin blinked. Moving? The picture was supposed to be moving?

"Oh, and I have come to a decision," Arthur continued, uncaring of Merlin's astonishment. "You need to get a staff."

Merlin just stared. "A staff?"

"Yes, a magic staff. Because I don't like the idea of having a sorcerer at court, but I can't deny the appeal of having a Chief Wizard."

"The dragon calls me a warlock," Merlin said without thinking, now wondering whether he was the one, who'd been enchanted. Perhaps he was stuck in a dream and only thought he was awake, which would mean that none of this was actually happening. That almost made more sense.

And what the hell was the difference between a Court Sorcerer and a Chief Wizard anyway?

"Dragon? When did a dragon enter the- no, wait, nevermind. We'll get back to that. Right, now the priority is getting you a good, powerful-looking staff."

"Uhh, I actually have a staff. Never used it, though."

Arthur stared at Merlin incredulously. "How can you have a staff and never have used it. That's like owning a good sword and keeping it locked away and hidden."

"I'm ever so sorry your highness, but it's not exactly like I can take it to the training field and practise with it!"

"Oh, right." Arthur looked momentarily perplexed, as though it hadn't even occurred to him there would be problems implementing all his new plans. "Well, I'll think of something. Maybe we can ride out to the forest for a hunting trip and then you can practise there."

Merlin just nodded. He wasn't sure he knew what to say to any of this anyway.

"So, you- you aren't angry anymore?" he finally asked quietly. Arthur's face closed off at the question.

"I wouldn't go that far," he said in a flat voice. "You lied to me and practised magic behind my back, which is still a punishable offence. We clearly have a lot to discuss, but I won't do that here. I need to think and figure out how we're going to go about doing this without my father finding out."

Merlin couldn't help the wide grin that erupted on his face.

"Oh shut up Merlin. You can start them again, Andrew."

"Uh, okay."

Merlin jumped as the noise from before came back in a sudden explosion of sound. The picture on the wall was moving now. And so he settled down next to Andrew on the long, cushioned chair - that was just as comfortable as it had looked like it would be – and watched the story unfold of evil magic and evil wizards, who wanted to drown the world in darkness and the good men and good wizards, who tried to stop it. And it wasn't just men and wizards, there were elves and a dwarf and these strange little creatures called hobbits.

It didn't take him long to figure out where Arthur's new staff idea had come from.

* * *

Yup, that reveal conclusion, that was me shamelessly taking advantage of the fact that I'm essentially writing a comedy here. Also, I'd like to remind you all that this does take place after season 1. And, yes, they are watching_ Lord of the Rings_ (which I also don't own - in case you were wondering...) and the scene Merlin interrupts is, in my mind, somewhere during the battle of Helms Deep, after Gandalf arrives with backup, obviously. Hope you enjoyed; please review!


	10. Morgana's Encounter

Disclaimer: Once again, anything you recognize, I own not.

Thanks to the wonderful **Glastig**, for betaing this story!

* * *

**Key in the Kingdom**

**Morgana's Encounter**

It was all Arthur's fault, Morgana fumed as she tore into her chambers and slammed the door after her.

Uther was in a foul mood, because his son had decided to take off for a few days without telling anyone. Of course, being he was the crown prince there was always the possibility that someone had managed to kidnap him, which was what had the king on edge. Until either Arthur showed up on his own or some else did with a ransom demand, they couldn't be absolutely sure which it was. Merlin was also gone, which made most people think the two of them had decided upon an unplanned hunt. Uther let them believe it. Because, what most people didn't know was that (and those that did were under pain of death, or whatever the king deemed equivalent to it, not to breath a word of it) was that there were no horses missing from the stables, none of their belongings seemed to have been packed and Gaius hadn't heard a word of anything from Merlin. Besides, usually Arthur left a message with someone if he were leaving without wanting to bother to ask permission in case his father had a mind to say no to him.

Morgana, however, wasn't worried about the prince and his manservant. For some reason, she just _knew_ they were both alright. Woman's intuition, she supposed. At least, Arthur had better be alright, so that she could yell at him when he got back for being so irresponsible and leaving her to deal with an irritated, refuses-to-admit-he's-worried Uther Pendragon.

She was both glad and annoyed to find Gwen not in her chambers. On the one hand, she hated to take her bad mood out on her maidservant, however she also wanted to rant and scream at the top of her lungs without looking like she was losing her mind and talking to the furniture.

Suddenly, someone behind her groaned. Morgana whirled around.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me; it's way too early for this crap," said Dawn as she looked around the room, holding a steaming cup in one hand. She noticed Morgana. "Oh, hi Morgana."

"Hello Dawn."

Morgana forgot her anger in favour of staring at Dawn's very unusual-looking clothes. She wore a plain lilac-coloured shirt on top with very short sleeves and breeches that were a matching lilac colour and covered with little yellow stars. She was barefoot and her toenails were painted bright pink. Morgana had never seen anyone paint their toenails before, but had to admit it looked rather pretty. She wondered how many different colours were available for painting nails. And, also, whether there were shoes one could wear in order to show off these beautifully-painted nails or if one had to walk barefoot.

Dawn apparently noticed her assessing gaze, because she grimaced.

"Sorry, haven't had a chance to get dressed yet," she said.

Morgana looked up and realized that Dawn did in fact look like she'd only very recently gotten out of bed. Her hair was rumpled and her eyes a bit glazed-over and a bit red with noticeable circles underneath them.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry, I'm afraid I was a bit preoccupied with your nails. I've never seen painted nails before. But, you look like you're barely awake. Please, have a seat."

She gently steered Dawn towards her bed. The girl sat down and sighed before taking a sip of her drink. Morgana caught a whiff of it and moaned.

"That smells good," she said, eyeing the thick brown liquid curiously. "What is it?"

"Hmm, oh, hot chocolate," Dawn answered and then looked up at Morgana thoughtfully. "You can try it if you like, but it might make you sick 'cause you're not used to our food. We, uh, add stuff to it and it's not like it'll kill you or anything, but since your body's not used to digesting it, you might not feel too good afterwards." She paused. "Which would be why I can't just give you the whole mug."

Morgana wondered what sort of 'stuff' could be added to food, but shrugged it off. She'd heard of far-off places that used strange spices and preparation methods for their food. Some of the dishes she'd seen at banquets whilest visiting some of Camelot's allies were such odd-looking things she hadn't dared touch them.

Dawn held the cup out to her and Morgana carefully took it, brining it up to her nose first to smell it properly. It truly did smell divine. She blew over the top of the liquid and then took a tentative sip. Her eyes widened and she couldn't resist taking a second, much larger drink, closing her eyes as the taste travelled through her whole mouth and then down her throat, leaving behind a lingering aftertaste of utter bliss.

"This is amazing!" she exclaimed. "I've never tasted anything like it."

"That's 'cause it'll be, like, a thousand years before chocolate comes anywhere near Albion."

Dawn grinned mischievously and Morgana echoed the expression. To think she was the very first woman in all of Albion to taste such a delicacy! It made her want to travel the world, to see what other wonderful things could be found in it.

"Cho-co-late, hm?" Morgana tried the word on her tongue. It even sounded delicious. Then she smirked. "Oh, I'll have to make sure to tell Arthur all about it! He'll certainly be sorry to have missed this!"

"The only thing he's missing right now is probably the safety and sanity of his normal, Andrew-less existence," said Dawn drying. "Oh, by the way, you should probably know that he and Merlin are safe. Stuck fifteen hundred years in the future and in the wrong dimension, but safe."

Two things crossed Morgana's mind in that instance: firstly, there was relief that her almost-brother was in fact safe and secondly, annoyance that he'd gone on such an interesting adventure and left her behind. Which begged the more pertinent question.

"How did that happen?" she asked. Dawn cringed.

"I appeared here again last night – well, last night for me anyway – and we were talking and then my cellphone rang. Which is a sort of communications device and something that should not have been able to work here, like, ever. I picked up and suddenly I'm back in London and they're with me. Giles figured we should wait 'till the morning to figure things out so we all went to bed. Also, it's apparently a proximity thing, 'cause neither one of them was anywhere near me when I, uh, shifted back here."

Morgana was stunned. And jealous. She took another sip of the hot chocolate.

"Well, I'm glad they're alright," she said eventually. "And I'll think of a way to tell Uther that won't end with him launching a kingdom-wide search, which seems to be his solution to most things these days. Although, you might want to warn Arthur the king is rather annoyed with him for taking off and not telling anyone about it."

Dawn frowned and then looked at Morgana with concern.

"Exactly how long has it been since they disappeared?"

"About two days, why?"

"Crap. I'd forgotten all about the time difference between our dimensions. It's only been about twelve hours or so since we arrived in London."

"Oh."

Morgana pondered this for a moment. It meant that, although Arthur and his manservant were both safe, it was impossible to guess when they'd be returning to Camelot. And Morgana couldn't just lie and tell Uther they were off on a hunting trip, because how in the world would she explain her two day memory lapse in between. She supposed she would have to tell the king the truth.

"And there's no way for them to get back without you?" she asked Dawn.

Dawn shrugged. "There might be. We'll have to call Willow in on this one for sure. And I think she mentioned Angel having a friend who was a genius with portals or something. Or maybe she was a genius, who got sucked into a portal... Whatever. Either way, Giles will probably be able to figure something out."

The girl took a deep breath and stood up, looking thoughtful. She looked like she was about to begin to pace, when she spied the window and her eyes lit up. The exhaustion that had blanketed her face earlier disappeared as she raced to the window and looked out into the courtyard.

"Wow, you know it's still kinda insane that I'm actually looking out at medieval England," she said after a while with an excited giggle. "Makes me wish I could figure out how to control this dimension-hopping thing and just spend some time browsing around. Like, exploring, you know?"

Morgana giggled back.

"I'd love to show you around," she said. "Though, I think you'd have to borrow some clothes first. Oh, I have a dark green dress that would look spectacular on you!"

"This plan is sounding better and better all the time! I wonder if we could convince the king to turn a blind eye while I pretend to be a visiting lady so I can attend a proper ball or banquet or something...without the creature feature obviously."

"I doubt it, but if we don't tell him it's you he might not notice."

"Yeah, I suppose I didn't exactly look my best when I met him."

"No, that you didn't, but with good reason. And at least your clothes didn't have stars on them."

Dawn blinked and then looked down at herself.

"In my defence, I was about to go shower and change into normal clothes. These are my pyjamas, after all."

"And I take it pyjamas are a type of sleep attire?" Dawn nodded. "I thought as much."

Something in the courtyard caught Dawn's attention and she grinned, watching whatever it was avidly. Morgana placed the warm cup of hot chocolate onto her bedside table and then made her way to the window. She leaned against sill next to Dawn and looked out, wondering what the girl found so interesting. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, she turned to her visitor.

"Dawn, what-?"

The sentence remained dangling, never to be finished. Morgana walked away from the window and scanned the room. It was certain, Dawn was definitely gone. The only proof she'd ever been there at all, was the cup of hot chocolate.

Morgana smirked and walked over to her bed. Sitting down, she picked up the cup and inhaled one, long breath of the delicious aroma. Dawn had warned her that drinking too much of it would make her ill. But it wouldn't kill her and that was all that mattered. If it made her ill, well, then she'd be ill and it will have been worth it.

Morgana took a deep drink of the warm liquid heaven.

* * *

Instead of looking out of a castle window into a real-life medieval courtyard, Dawn suddenly found herself staring at a much less exciting wooden door. After a few moments of blinking and staring – to allow her mind to wind its way around her present circumstances – Dawn sighed and opened the door. Inside, the surround sound was blaring out a scene from _Lord of the Rings_ (somewhere in the third movie, she thought) and four young men sat on the couches and armchair, their eyes glued to the big screen in front of them.

"Ooh, Merlin, could you do that?" Arthur yelled excitedly, pointing to the screen as Gandalf's staff splintered apart in his hands.

"Uh, Arthur, you do realize the guy who did that is the Witch King of Agmar, all-around evil guy and highest minion of the Ultimate Evil, Sauron, right?" Xander asked.

Arthur waved him off.

"Well, yes, obviously without the whole being evil bit."

"I don't know Arthur," said Merlin with a sigh that made Dawn giggle. "It's not like I've had the opportunity to battle many sorcerers."

"Hmm, that's something else you'll have to practise then." There was a slight pause as the witch king flew off and the camera shot to a cut of the orc army. "Also, that flaming sword spell would've been useful against some of magical creatures we've come across."

"It was." Arthur's head spun to Merlin so fast Dawn swore she saw his hair swish with the motion, short as it was. She couldn't see Merlin's expression, but she imagined he looked like he was regretting saying anything at all.

"Andrew, make the people stop," said Arthur (well, it sounded a bit like a command, but since it was directed at Andrew, she didn't care so much).

"For the record, it's called 'pausing'," said Xander once the movie froze. "Also, you're pausing the movie, not the people on the screen. Well, technically I suppose you're pausing the people too since they're in the - no, you know what forget I even started this conversation."

Not that it mattered, since Arthur was ignoring Xander in favour of staring Merlin down. Merlin twitched a bit nervously, before finally speaking.

"Well, it wasn't the same spell, or at least it didn't look the same, but there's a similar spell and it worked against a, uh, magical creature or two we faced..."

"Such as?"

"Such as... oh hell, why did you _think_ Lancelot was able to take down the griffin so easily when you and your knights all failed?"

"Woah, hang on, Lancelot?" Xander exclaimed.

"As in _Sir_ Lancelot, you've met him?" Andrew echoed, though twice as excitedly. "But, wait, I thought Lancelot-"

"Hey, whoa, stop with the spoilers there, Andrew," Dawn cut him off, not wanting to deal with yet more potential damage with people and time lines.

"Sir Lancelot?" Merlin said, grinning from ear to ear as he whipped around to face Andrew. "So Lancelot becomes a knight?"

"See, you're already spoiling things for them."

"Sorry."

"Hey Dawn, not meaning to pry or anything," Xander began with a confused frown, "but haven't you already been up for a while. Spike said you were heading up to have a shower and that was hours ago."

"Yeah, I was going to have a shower. Then I walked in on Morgana."

"Morgana?" four voices exclaimed.

"As in Morgana Le F-"

"Andrew, shut up!"

Dawn and Xander glared at Andrew, who promptly slid backwards into the couch to get as far away from them as he could. Arthur and Merlin exchanged bewildered looks. Then Dawn cleared her throat and smiled at them.

"So, yeah, apparently it's been something, like, two days since you guys disappeared from Camelot and the king's a bit pissed at you for not telling him you were leaving. So, Morgana's going to come up with some sort of story to tell him, which might possibly end up just being the plain, yet not-so-simple truth. In the meantime, I guess I'll have to stick to the two of you like glue so that the next time I go dimension hopping I drag you along for the ride back."

"Guess this means we'll have to call for the big magic guru of the twenty-first century," said Xander with a grin.

"Probably, but I'll let Giles make that call. First, I'm showering."

"I thought we were supposed to be sticking to you like glue?" Arthur called to her as Dawn exited the room alone.

"Nice try, Arthur," she called back with a roll of her eyes. "I highly doubt I'm in danger of tripping to Camelot this soon. If I do, I'll make sure to bring you back a souvenir, though, to ward off homesickness."

"Just so long as it's not Morgana." Arthur made a face and Merlin snickered.

Dawn giggled and then froze. She looked down at her empty hands.

"Damn. I left my hot chocolate there."

* * *

Well, there you have it folks. I had fun writing these three chapters with the additional BTVS cast, so I hope you had fun reading it as well. So... review?


	11. Eighth Encounter

Wow, can't believe this story only has a chapter or two to go before it's done! Which means I might just finish it while I'm on vacation next week... we'll see. Anywhoo, thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and Big Thanks to **the Glastig**, who betaed this chapter!

Discalimer: Don't own anything but the plot. Though I sometimes wish I did.

* * *

**Key in the Kingdom**

**Eighth Encounter**

Returning to Camelot was like the best thought-out surprise attack by his worst enemy. Well, maybe not his worst enemy, but Morgana for certain. Arthur was certainly he'd never live it down.

Ever since Dawn's solitary visit to Morgana's chambers, she hadn't strayed far from Arthur or Merlin. Which was at once interesting and irritating. Arthur had certainly spent more time inside a library during the past week than he had in the last ten years of his life – ever since he had been permitted to finally join the knights in their regular training.

Of course, comparing the sanctuary of Geoffrey of Monmouth to the library Rupert Giles carefully maintained was rather difficult – they were as different from each other as night and day. Camelot's library always seemed dark and dusty, its organizational system difficult to understand and crossing its threshold always made one feel like an intruder. The Watcher's Council's library, in contrast, was clean and bright (Arthur had come to greatly appreciate the invention called overhead lighting) and most shelves were clearly labeled, even the ones in the back, where the books looked old enough to have come from the Camelot library.

Also, there was this fascinating creation called a 'computer', which was sort of like the moving picture painting, except that one could use it to search for information. Xander had shown Arthur how it worked and how to 'type' messages into a small space and send them to a person, who was somewhere else. It hadn't taken Arthur long to figure out the person he was writing to was the same Willow, who'd created the wards in the room where the others had exorcised the demon when Arthur had first arrived. Later on, Dawn had shown Arthur a world map and pointed to where Willow was, which had left Arthur gaping even more. She was on the other side of the ocean – he hadn't even known there _was_ anything on the other side of the ocean!

However, if there was one thing Arthur wished he could take with him back to Camelot, it was Faith's motorcycle. He loved his horse dearly, but after one ride with Faith, he was in love.

It wasn't that Arthur didn't miss Camelot. He hated being uncertain and not knowing what was going on around him left him irritated. And this 'brave new world', as Giles had called it, was one Arthur didn't understand. For instance, when he had gone demon hunting with Faith one night, he had to make sure to keep his borrowed sword hidden, because it was illegal to carry a weapon. To go out at night in Camelot without a weapon would be unthinkable – Arthur never left his sword at home during the day, let alone at night. So much around him seemed like magic that it was sometimes difficult for him to remember it wasn't.

Then he found himself wondering whether it would truly be so bad if it were magic. After all, this indoor plumbing and central heating thing seemed like a rather good thing. And if one needed food, all they had to do was go to a shop, where Dawn said they had food all year round and it was always fresh and unspoiled. If magic were able to keep a house warm throughout the winter and keep food stores from spoiling or perhaps simply protect crops so they were always healthy and plentiful, which would, in turn, ensure more people survived the winters, would that really be such a bad thing?

Arthur had just finished a sparring session with Faith – he enjoyed sparring with her, because despite her somewhat wild swordsmanship, she was unpredictable and quick on her feet – and was taking full advantage of another wonderful creation called a 'shower'. Dawn and Merlin were waiting for him just outside the bathroom door, chatting away about something they'd read in one of the magic books Merlin had found in the library. Merlin's delight at being able to talk to someone about magic made Arthur smile. The more Arthur learnt about Merlin and his magic, the more difficult it was for him to stay angry with him. There was still a part of him that wanted to scream 'traitor' at his manservant and lock him up in the nearest dungeon, but over time he was finding it much easier to silence that part.

And, really, when it came down to it, Arthur knew he would never allow his father to execute Merlin. Because if Merlin were dead, then when he became king, who'd be his Chief Wizard? Chief Wizard, who weilded a magic staff, naturally.

Well, whatever it was they were talking about outside, Dawn and Merlin were certainly loud enough for Arthur to hear their voices over the rush of water from the shower. They quieted momentarily and Arthur then heard a third voice join them. It sounded male, but was muffled enough by the door and water that he couldn't quite recognize who it belonged to.

The moment he turned the handle to stop the water spray, the voices outside the bathroom went silent. Arthur blinked in confusion. Did they go somewhere? He listened carefully and thought he could hear them breathing, but that could've also been his imagination. Suddenly, a voice broke the silence.

"Oh holy knight, batman," Xander squeaked.

"Crap," said Dawn, quietly. "We left Arthur behind, didn't we?"

"Quite possibly," Merlin replied.

"Wonderful, just wonderful."

Arthur frowned. He was about to call out to them, when the hallway outside the door erupted into a chorus of screams, bangs, screeches of wood on stone and the sound of many swords being drawn. Arthur lept out of the shower, nearly slipping on the wet tiles and almost running out of the bathroom naked before realizing there was at least one woman out there. He turned, tripped over the fuzzy rug on the floor, and threw open the towel cupboard. The entire pile of towels went flying to the floor as he grabbed the one in Pendragon red and gold. He tied it around his waist and then picked up one of the implements next to the toilet bowl (it looked like an upside down bowl at the end of a long, fairly thick stick and, while not ideal, it looked sturdy enough to be useful in whacking someone over the head).

Thus armed and clothed, Arthur rushed out into the hallway.

"Merlin, Dawn, Xander, are you al-?"

Arthur froze. He stared and the entire throne room stared back at him. Oh, thought Arthur, we're back in Camelot. Dawn whirled around to face him, relief clearly written across her face.

"Arthur!" she exclaimed. "Oh, thank God! I was so scared we, like, left you in London...or, um, something...and...um... Arthur, why are you wearing my sister's beach towel?"

Arthur resisted the urge to squirm under the strange look she was giving him. He tried not to think about just how many people were inside the throne room and would really preferred to not have Dawn remind him just how little he was wearing. He straightened his back proudly, not willing to let anyone think that his lack of clothes made him vulnerable. He had nothing to be ashamed of, after all – his body possessed no horrible deformities, just a few scars earned in battle.

"Your sister has good taste, then," he announced. "The towel is decorated in Pendragon red and gold."

The pointed look of disbelief on Dawn's face made Arthur pause. The way Xander winced before covering his eyes (well, one eye and an eyepatch) with his right hand made him twitch. Merlin's poorly-veiled attempt to hide that he was seconds from bursting into laughter, filled him with dread. And the rest of the court seemed to be slowly coming out of their initial shock and the quirking lips and badly-concealed smiles did absolutely nothing to help his growing unease. An unease that had nothing to do with his lack of clothes - or at least very little so long as he ignored how intently Lady Penelope and her husband were staring at him.

"Arthur," said Dawn after a pause and Arthur steeled himself. "You're right, there is definitely red and gold on the towel. However, there's also this third colour mixed in called pink. And those colours are definitely not arranged in random swirls."

Dawn's eyes twinkled in amusement and the corners of her lips twitched. Slowly, Arthur looked down at the towel that was, thankfully, still wrapped securely around his middle. Almost immediately, he could feel his face heating up as his eyes widened in horror.

"Hey, don't sweat it, Arthur," said Xander with a mischievous twinkle in his single eye. "I'm sure your knights will stop calling you the Princess of Hearts eventually!"

Arthur's head shot up. He scowled at the one-eyed man. Xander grinned back, unrepentant and infuriatingly unintimidated. He had more luck with the knights, whose snickers quieted almost instantly when struck by a glare that promised much pain at the next day's training. It was a glare he'd spent long hours tuning to absolute perfection.

(Although, as it so happened, it would take him a full week to beat the instantly-adopted nickname out of them and even then it would persist to live on – only more discretely and carefully out of earshot of the prince – and would, in fact, continue to exist and then morph into the Queen of Hearts, Arthur non-the-wiser. Merlin would, of course, share the knight's secret and use his very own modification of the name, referring affectionately to his liege as the Prat of Hearts.)

"Arthur!" a loud voice echoed across the throne room. The King's voice seemed to break the near silence of the room and instantly transformed it into a myriad of movement and sound.

The look of relief and joy on his father's face warmed Arthur's heart, even though the king did not join Morgana as she hiked up her skirts and ran towards him. Suddenly there was a shadow standing next to his right side. Arthur tensed and then relaxed with a slight smile when he saw Sir Leon holding out his bright red cloak to him.

"Sire, if you'd like to cover up," the tall knight said with a polite smile and warm eyes that said more than he would ever say out loud. In the background, he could hear his father dismissing the courtiers along with his councillors.

"Thank you, sir Leon," said Arthur with a grateful smile. He slipped the cloak over his shoulders and fastened it at the front – it wasn't perfect, but it was certainly better than parading around in nothing but that towel.

Which Dawn had said belonged to her sister. But everyone had described Buffy Summers as a ferocious warrior – what kind of warrior owned a heart-covered towel?

And then he had his arms full of long, dark hair and dark green fabric as Morgana embraced him with no regard for his precariously-balanced towel. Feeling very awkward, Arthur carefully put one arm around her as his other reached for his towel in order to keep it exactly where it was. Then the woman giggled and then pulled away from him with a mischievous smirk.

"It's good to see you back again," she said. "Although, I'll admit I wasn't quite expecting to see quite so much of you." Then she looked at the strange implement that he was still holding in his hand. "Now, do tell, what sort of exotic, futuristic weapon is this?"

Arthur froze.

"Uh... I'm not entirely sure," he said looking over the item again. He glanced quickly to Dawn and Xander, who were practically biting their hands at this point in their attempts to not laugh out loud. Clearly, whatever it was he was holding was far from being a weapon of any sorts. "It happened to be the first thing I grabbed in my haste to get to Dawn and Merlin's aid. Just like the towel."

There, he thought, now he had a good explanation for the humiliating towel. He was rushing to heroically protect the beauteous maiden and his helpless (except not really, but they didn't know that) manservant.

Dawn snorted. "Are you kidding me?" she said. "That towel was at the bottom of the pile."

Arthur glared at her. She looked amused.

"Hello Dawn, I'm glad you managed to bring him back in one piece," said Morgana with a slight giggle.

"Yeah, it nearly didn't happen when he insisted on going with Faith on patrol," Dawn answered with a grin. "It took him a few tries to realize that when Faith said 'go with decapitation', it was because that's really the only way to kill a tekrestil demon. Well, unless you've got a silver arrow that's been dipped in sacred water – which is not to be mistaken for holy water. That'll kill it too. Way more of a hassle to get, though."

"Yeah, the nymphs that lounge around those sacred ponds get real nasty when their naps are interrupted," said Xander, shudder evident in his voice.

"And don't forget the kelpie."

"Of course, how could I possibly forget the kelpie. It tried to seduce me, then eat me, only to take one bite and declare me too contaminated and therefore inedible. Wasn't quite sure whether to be relieved or insulted by that one."

"I think relief would likely be the appropriate response," said Leon, who still hadn't moved from Arthur's side for which the prince felt infinitely grateful. The tall knight was a solid wall between him and the all-too-curious, gawking nobles, who were already gossipping in loud whispers as they made their way slowly out of the throne room.

Xander shrugged. "Yeah and I mean, I did try to warn him that he wouldn't like the taste, but he just wouldn't listen."

Eventually the throne room cleared out except for those, who had just arrived, a few servants, Morgana and the king. Leon left last with a squeeze of Arthur's shoulder and an encouraging look. Arthur nodded to him as he exited the throne room, knowing he wouldn't be going far. It was odd, the prince suddenly realized, this kinship he felt with Sir Leon. He'd barely known the man before... before Merlin arrived and Arthur had gradually found himself spending less and less time with his one-time band of friends. Arthur shook his head with an amused half-smile. Morgana, among others, had told him he'd changed since Merlin had become his manservant, but until now, he wasn't sure he'd quite believed her.

A year ago, he would've never thought of stoic, courteous Leon as a friend. A year ago, he'd now be telling his father to prepare an execution block for the sorcerer in their midst and then finding himself a servant to prepare him a bath before heading down to the tavern with his favoured group of peers.

Only when the large, double doors shut with a rattle of metal, did King Uther move from his throne. His father crossed the room in large, not-quite-hurried strides. A large smile on his lips made him look years younger and his face lost the harshness he usually bore – suddenly Arthur saw Rupert Giles in his father.

Arthur really hoped his mind would stop comparing the two men soon.

"Arthur, I am relieved to see you've managed to return to Camelot unharmed," his father declared. He then paused to motion to a few of the servants. "Bring the prince and his guests some mead!"

He was answered by an immediate shuffle of movement. That done, the king turned piercing eyes to Dawn.

"Morgana told me about her encounter with you," he said. "She said you think you've been cursed and have companions attempting to figure out how to remove it..."

Dawn blinked.

"Um, yeah, they are... I mean, we are, all of us," she said, wincing as she stumbled over her words.

"Giles has some theories, but we're kinda waiting for Wills, our big gun, to test them," Xander added. Which, brought the king's attention to him.

"And you are?" Uther Pendragon asked, his voice low and dangerous as he observed the young man. Arthur sprang to the man's aid.

"Father," he quickly said, before Xander had a chance to respond. "This is Xander Harris. He is one of those, who fight evil with Dawn in their world. He lost his eye while valiantly defending defenceless maidens from a mage, who had willingly given his soul to a demon in return for power."

Okay, so maybe that wasn't an entirely accurate description of events as Xander and Faith had described them, but it wasn't an outright lie either. And, most importantly, it was likely to get a favourable response from his father.

Judging by the light that now glinted in the king's eyes, it had worked.

"Really? Is this true?" he asked Xander, looking closely at his response.

"Er, well, yeah... that's one way to put it I suppose..." Xander looked a bit bewildered at the turn of the conversation. "I mean, it was more like the guy was channelling the evil demon's powers. Also, I'm pretty sure the girls would object to being called helpless maidens- ow!"

"Stop worrying about the technicalities, Xander," said Dawn after not quite discreetly stepping on his foot. "You were being heroic and fighting against the big bad evil guy, who was stronger than you and you had no chance of defeating."

"I take it the evil was defeated?"

"Uh, yeah, more or less." Dawn shrugged. "The demon doesn't actually have a corporeal presence, so it's kinda difficult to run it through with a sword, but we destroyed its army and crippled it so it shouldn't be a threat anytime soon."

Uther nodded, apparently satisfied with their answer.

Arthur turned away for a moment as Gwen handed him a goblet of mead. He thanked her and then turned back to find his father looking thoughtful. After a slight pause, he grasped Arthur's shoulder and steered him away from the others. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see two servant girls also handing Dawn and Xander some mead. Xander grinned broadly at the pretty brunette as he thanked her. She blushed at the attention and Arthur bit back a grin of his own.

"Son, are you sure these people can be trusted?" his father finally asked in an urgent voice when he deemed them far enough away.

"Yes, father, I do," Arthur answered truthfully, relieved that he didn't have to lie to answer that question.

Although, he knew he'd have to lie to his father about Merlin and had known all along that he could never let his father know what he'd learnt about magic during his brief stay in the twenty-first century, having the man himself standing before him and questioning him was nerve-wracking to say the least. Especially with Arthur wearing nothing more than a cloak and a towel. Suddenly, Arthur was hit with a jolt of inspiration.

"I spent a week in their world, father and have seen Dawn and her friends and allies fight evil creatures the likes of which we, here in Camelot, have seen only in our nightmares. It was truly inspiring and I have come back with a few ideas of how we can approach some of our own problems."

His father looked impressed and proud.

"Excellent job, Arthur! You are truly worthy of being called Camelot's best knight. It takes a skilled warrior and leader to learn from what he sees around him and then be able to utilize it in battle."

Arthur felt his father's approval wash over him like a balm. He just hoped he wouldn't get asked what these ideas of his were, because, unfortunately, the vast majority of them involved Merlin using magic – using his magic staff to be precise.

"What was their world like?" Uther asked in a low whisper, his words just a little bit rushed – as though he wanted to make certain no one else could hear them. Arthur blinked, a bit unsure until he noticed the curiosity shining in his father's eyes.

Arthur hid a smile.

"It was fascinating, very different," he paused, suddenly realizing he had been handed the perfect opportunity to take away all of his father's suspicion of Dawn. Or at least most of it. He grinned, allowing the giddy excitement he'd been keeping at bay since first arriving in Dawn's world emerge at last.

"Actually, it's not so much that it was different from our world entirely. In fact, one could say it is very similar to our world, or at least what our world will be like in the distant future."

Uther's eyes widened. "The future?"

"Yes, father, the future. According to Dawn's estimation, well over a millennium into the future." The king was hanging on his every word and Arthur suppressed a second grin. "I've seen incredible things! I'm not even sure I know where to begin, but the things humans had achieved..." He paused, for effect. "Dawn and Xander's world is governed by the laws of science. They have managed to learn about the world around them through the eyes of science and even harnessed the elements with science. For instance, they use the power of the wind and the power of water in order to recreate the power of lightening, which they then use as a power source for heating and light and... Did you know that the world is much, much bigger than we now know? That there is an entire continent on the other side of the ocean? Father, I spoke to one of Dawn's friends while she was on said continent through a device they call a computer. I wrote down a message and then seconds later I could see her reply. It was amazing! And not an once of magic anywhere!"

Arthur stopped and took a deep breath. He needed to calm himself - he was beginning to sound like Merlin. He glanced back to the group to see what Merlin was doing and paused. Dawn was chatting happily with Morgana and Xander was still talking to the serving girl that had brought him mead. However, Merlin was standing a few steps away from both groups and observing them with a frown.

"And you're sure it was science and not magic you were witnessing, Arthur?" his father asked, drawing Arthur's attention away again.

"No, definitely not magic. Although, I'm afraid I am not a scholar therefore I did not understand much of their explanations, but it certainly sounded scientific and did make a sort of sense when they explained it to me."

"Yes, yes, that is perfectly understandable. Fascinating. I wonder what Gaius would've made of such a world..." Then his father's eyes lit up. "You realize this means they managed to win?"

Suddenly, Arthur found himself being gripped tightly by hands on both shoulders, his father's imploring, excited face less than a handspan away from his own. He took a staggering half-step backwards, his left hand reaching downward to grip at the tie in his towel to make sure it stayed in place.

"Do you realize what this means, Arthur? It means the war on magic isn't futile. It can be won!"

"Er..."

Arthur wondered whether the king's eyes had always gleamed like that. He frantically looked behind the king to see if there wasn't something he could use to divert his attention elsewhere. Dawn and Xander were completely ignoring his dilemma (Xander was really getting on well with that servant girl, not that it helped Arthur any). He had hoped Merlin could be counted on to conveniently drop something or trip over thin air, or perhaps make the castle shake mysteriously – actually, Arthur realized, that last one was a really bad idea and, once having thought about it he really hoped Merlin didn't make the castle shake. It would be rather difficult to explain to the king.

Unfortunately, Merlin was still staring at the others with a frown on his face, except now Gwen was standing by his side with a confused frown of her own. They seemed to both be looking in Xander's direction.

Arthur decided that was better than nothing. He cleared his throat.

"Excuse me, father," he said. "If you will allow me, Dawn might know more about how this war on magic was won."

His father hummed in agreement, his mind already far away from the throne room and Arthur took full advantage of his distraction to extracte himself from the king's clutches. He then walked quickly towards Merlin and Gwen.

"Merlin, you're frowning," he said out loud. "Not thinking again, are you? You know you need to be careful to not overtax that fragile mind of yours."

Merlin interrupted his frowning long enough to roll his eyes.

"Very funny, sire," he said. "I was wondering who that servant girl talking to Xander was. I don't think I've seen her before."

"Oh?" Arthur nudged Merlin gently with his elbow (which, threw Merlin completely off-balance and resulted in him stumbling a few steps). "Jealous, Merlin? You know, he's only here temporarily and then you can have her all to yourself."

Merlin sputtered as Arthur waggled an eyebrow at him suggestively. Gwen giggled.

"Th-that's not what I meant!" his manservant finally managed to say. He paused to glare at Arthur and then continued in a low hiss. "Not even Gwen's entirely sure, who she is."

Okay, Arthur thought, that was maybe a bit odd. But certainly no real cause for concern; Gwen was very busy and there were so many servants in Camelot – quite frankly, they all looked so similar to one another that it would be rather surprising if Gwen or Merlin knew every single one of them.

"Maybe she's new," Arthur said with a shrug. He grabbed Merlin's upper arm and shoved him in the direction of Xander and the girl. "Why don't you go ask her yourself if you're so interested. In my experience that seems to work the best."

Merlin stumbled a few steps and Arthur was sure there was a glare being sent in his direction, but he ignored it as he stopped in front of Dawn and Morgana.

"Dawn!" he said with smile, suddenly wondering how in the world he was supposed to breach the subject.

"Oh, hey Arthur," Dawn answered absently. "Um, do you know what's up with Merlin?"

Arthur blinked, surprised by the sudden question.

"Only, he just seemed to be doing an awful lot of frowning there..."

"He's not sure, who the servant Xander's talking to is." Arthur shrugged. "I told him not to worry. Once Xander disappears with you, he'll have her all to himself."

The amusement Arthur was expecting from Dawn didn't come. Arthur frowned at the worried frown on her face. Morgana met his eyes, equally confused by the girl's reaction. She then turned to her maidservant.

"Gwen, do you not know this girl?" she asked.

"I met her in the kitchens this morning, my lady," Gwen answered. "Her name is Melinda. I didn't think much of it then, but when Merlin mentioned it earlier... I don't remember seeing her before today. Of course, I'm always so busy and although the steward said he wasn't hiring any servants at the moment, I suppose he might've made an exception if she were the daughter of an acquaintance or perhaps had a particularly sorrowful tale, which may have enticed him to take pity on her-"

"Thank you, Gwen," Morgana interrupted with a fond smile. Gwen smiled back.

"Hmm..." was Dawn's only reaction as she observed the girl warily.

The girl was smiling sweetly, looking a bit nervous. Which was only natural, really. Merlin seemed to forget that as manservant to the crown prince he was one of the highest ranking servants in the castle and here he was ambushing the poor girl. Arthur shook his head. Merlin really had no idea how to woo a woman.

So, naturally, Arthur decided he should help his hapless manservant out.

"I do apologize, Merlin here's a bit hopeless at things that require thought, such as basic communication," said Arthur with a grin as he put an arm around his manservant's shoulder and then ruffled his hair. "He was a bit concerned that he hadn't seen you around the castle before. Can't figure out how he missed such a pretty face."

Merlin glared at him.

"Sire, your towel's falling down again," said Merlin.

Arthur immediately let go of Merlin and reached for the towel. He shot the boy a suspicious look when he realized the knot at its side had loosened. Would Merlin have really risked discovery in order to play a prank?

"Sorry about that, Melinda," he heard Merlin say as he was busily re-securing the towel around his waste. "It's just, I didn't realize the steward was taking on new servants. And Gwen didn't think so either..."

Xander chuckled warmly.

"Apparently, you're a complete mystery," he said to Melinda. Arthur looked back, wincing when he realized the girl was once again hanging on Xander's every word. Poor Merlin. The girl was, by the looks of it, completely smitten with the one-eyed man. "You know, if we were in Sunnydale, you'd probably end up being an evil witch or demon or something that snuck in so that you could destroy the castle or kingdom or possibly just the library..."

The girl's back was to him, so Arthur couldn't see the expression on her face, however whatever it was, it made Xander cover his face with his left hand and groan.

"You have got to be kidding me," he said. Then he threw both hands up in exasperation. "I was joking!"

Arthur froze, wishing he had some sort of weapon, even if it was that silly-looking rubber stick thing (which he was certain was a cleaning implement of some sort, but was nonetheless still better than nothing). And then his father was shouting for the guards and Melinda threw her arms out to either side of her, the words of her spell sounding crystal clear over the buzzing in the air Arthur now knew to associate with magic.

And then a great wind swept him off his feet and sent him crashing awkwardly into a chair, which then crashed into the table behind it. Arthur grit his teeth at the pain that exploded along his back. When the shooting pain calmed a bit, he forced his eyes open.

Melinda, the false servant girl (and oh, maybe that was what had Merlin so interested in her – had he sensed her magic?) stood in the middle of a whirlwind, which was currently whipping violently through the throne room. Her eyes were glowing the same gold colour that Merlin's did when he used magic and there was something wild in her expression, despite the calm in her posture, the windstorm battering the throne room not effecting her in the slightest. As the gale threw goblets, plates and various foodstuffs around the room, her skirts remained still and not a single hair on her head swayed.

She was glaring down at the king and Arthur realized her words were no longer part of a magical spell, but a vow of vengeance. He had to strain his ears to hear her words, but the message was clear.

"...my beloved, the father of my child!" he caught her say over the whistling of the unnatural wind. "My son will never know his father because of your hatred! Uther Pendragon, I curse you and ahck-"

The wind stopped abruptly as a dark shape lunged at her and grabbed her, apparently disrupting her concentration. The girl struggled like a wild animal, screaming and scratching and kicking at Xander, who was weathering her attacks and whispering something to her.

"Good job, young man!" the king called. "Guards, arrest the sorceress!"

Arthur was half-way to her when he suddenly found himself shoved to the ground and watched as a pair of twenty-first century shoes called sneakers ran past him. He scowled and was about to protest the treatment (He wasn't useless around magic, dammit! And here he _was_ the prince!), but the words froze in his throat when he actually got a good look at Dawn.

She was glowing. An outline of bright green light surrounded her entire frame.

She grabbed Xander, yelling at him to let go of the girl. It got both Xander and Melinda's attention. Their eyes widened and Melinda stilled as Xander released her and stepped away from her. He placed a hand on her back, presumably to push her away from them...

The glow from Dawn encompassed all three of them and then they were gone.

"Well, that was a bit anti-climactic," said Morgana as she straightened her hair. She looked over to meet Arthur's eyes... and then her eyes slid downwards.

Her lips twitched in amusement and that was when Arthur knew he was in trouble.

"Well," she drawled with a daintily raised eyebrow, "now I know why all the scullery maids make such a fuss."

Arthur looked down. The towel was gone. He grabbed the ends of his borrowed cloak and pulled them tight around him to cover himself as his face turned a bright Pendragon red.

* * *

Hope everyone enjoyed that! Now please review!


	12. Ninth Encounter

Um... yeah, hi everyone, remember me? I have no words to explain just why this chapter took so long to finish... seriously, it's a mystery even to me. Somewhere towards the end of November I just sort of looked at the file and went: 'oh yeah, I should probably finish that...' Yeah... Anywhoo, thanks to everyone, who read and reviewed the last chapter - your comments are always much-loved and appreciated. And a big thank you to **Glastig** for betaing this chapter.

Disclaimer: Don't own anything but the plot. And possibly the bubble.

Warning: Should probably point out this chapter has some spoilers for season 2. Nothing past the first half of the season though.

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**Key in the Kingdom**

**Ninth Encounter**

Months passed by in Camelot. Chilly, windy autum full of harvest festivals turned into a blindingly-white, bitter winter, which gradually melted away into spring, with new buds, new grass and new adventures. The renewal of spring also heralded a new determination to King Uther's war on magic (Merlin theorized it was because being stuck indoors all winter had given the king too much time to think).

Spring also brought new dangers. Workers repairing the dungeon walls found the old tomb of an ancient and powerful sorcerer – who turned out to have a slightly different definition of 'dead' than most people – and Arthur's attempt to teach Merlin a lesson about behaving like a proper, _normal_, servant backfired completely when the replacement turned out to be a thief with less common sense than Merlin had on most days. Then Morgana got kidnapped by druids. Although Arthur was fairly certain he hadn't gotten the full story from Merlin about that one, there wasn't time to drag it out of his manservant before the two of them were once again in the middle of a crisis and rushing off to rescue Guinevere.

Then the Witchfinder arrived and Arthur was sure he spent a week not breathing as first Gaius and then Merlin were accused of sorcery. He had also never been gladder for his years of practise of holding his tongue in front of his father and the court, because he fairly certain yelling "Stop, you cannot burn Merlin; he's to be my Chief Warlock when I am king!" would not have gone over well with anyone. Except perhaps Morgana. She would've likely been delighted.

He hadn't given Dawn more than a second thought since the long, dull nights of winter when his own thoughts and shared stories with Merlin, Morgana and – with increasing regularity – Gwen were the only way to pass the time. A part of him was sad to think he'd never see the girl again, but there were more important things to worry about. Dawn's friends seemed capable enough most of the time, therefore he assumed her absence meant they'd lifted the curse or however else one went about solving such a magical problem.

He hadn't ever expected to see her again. So, naturally, he did.

As though someone had decided huge, spiked demon dogs, long-armed, dark-skinned demons and trips to the future weren't memorable enough, Dawn's final appearance overshadowed them all.

Just like the first time they'd met, it was a beautiful, sunny day with just a hint of breeze. Arthur was incredibly thankful to whatever instruments of Fate or the Old Religion or whomever it was that decided such matters, that his father had been away from the castle that day with Morgana, visiting the keep of Lord Bartholomew – an old ally of Uther and friend of Morgana's father.

Merlin was pretending to look useful (though admittedly not very hard) while Arthur was leading the knights through morning sword drills. Then the air around him seemed to shudder. He noticed several of the knights pause mid-swing, eyes darting around. Merlin froze, suddenly more alert than he had been all day.

Then he heard the noise.

It started as nothing more than a steady, high-pitched whisper of sound, but gradually it became louder, lower-pitched and more recognizable. He was so completely focused on the sound and trying to figure out where it was coming from, he didn't notice the Camelot knights spread out, their swords held in front of them as they too searched the courtyard for the source of the heart-wrenching screams.

They sounded female and whoever she was, she was obviously in a lot of pain – steady, constant pain. However, despite how close the screaming sounded, none of them could find its source.

"Sorcery," Arthur heard one of the knights whisper. Many of them looked nervous, unsettled by the screams, but Arthur was proud to see them all holding firm.

Suddenly, he felt a presence to his right. He tensed, eyes darting to the side, and then relaxed when he saw it was only Merlin.

"Merlin," he growled out in warning.

"Stand back, Arthur," the young man said and Arthur frowned, the admonishment on his lips forgotten. "You need to tell your knights to stand back."

The prince paused, looking again at his manservant, this time taking in the intent focus on his face. He was clearly seeing something Arthur wasn't – or couldn't – see.

"What is it?" he asked quietly, not wanting to bring the knights' attention to how he was taking his cues from Merlin.

"I-" Merlin frowned. "I'm not sure, but it's getting stronger."

Arthur really wished magic was something more tangible. He could see the sorcerer, could hear the words of a spell (unless it was Merlin casting, because he was _special,_ apparently) and could then witness the result of said spell, but he couldn't see the magic itself. And talking with Merlin had proved utterly useless, because he couldn't understand what it was Arthur wasn't seeing.

Nonetheless, Arthur looked at the spot Merlin was so focused on. His eyes widened. He wasn't actually expecting to see anything, so he was understandably shocked to see the air in the middle of the training grounds shimmer green.

"Move back!" he commanded, motioning with his left arm to indicate where he wanted his knights to move back from.

The ones on the outskirts of the gathering saw what their prince did almost immediately, gasping and grabbing their comrades to pull them back. It appeared that it took about half a dozen steps of distance for anyone to see the green shimmer.

The screaming stopped and there were several moments of utter silence. No one moved. Then the air was filled with several pained sobs, which echoed slightly, as though the sound was being magnified by being inside a cave.

"Oh god, it hurts. Make it stop. God, make it stop!"

Arthur froze. He recognized that voice.

"Dawn?" he whispered. And then, louder, he called: "Dawn? Dawn, can you hear me?"

A new sort of panic filled him. Something was hurting his friend and he could see neither her, nor her tormentor in order to help. There were a few more moments of complete silence.

"Arthur?" the voice said quietly.

"Dawn, I'm here! Where are you?"

"I-I'm... oh goddess, no! No, I'm doing this; I can't stop it! I can't – I-I have to, I-"

"Dawnie, sweetie, you have to calm down," a third voice cut in, a kind feminine voice that reminded Arthur a bit of Guinevere.

"I'm trying!" Dawn screamed, now more in frustration than in pain. "Oh god, I can feel it... it's getting stronger... I can't keep it in!" She screamed again, this time there was nothing but pain in the sound.

"Make it stop!" she sobbed. "Please, please, Willow, make it stop!"

Arthur felt on the verge of tears with helpless frustration himself. He wanted to do something, anything to help, but without being able to see what was going on, he couldn't do anything but listen to Dawn's anguish as she tried to stop whatever was threatening to happen.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Merlin suddenly called out.

Arthur glanced to his manservant. His eyes widened when he saw that Merlin's were glowing as the young man stared intently at the shimmery air. He looked worried, but calm, confident and more at home in his own skin than Arthur had ever seen him outside of a few moments when the two had snuck away on a hunting trip so that Merlin could practise with his staff.

Of course, Arthur realized, if any of them could help Dawn, it would be Merlin.

"Merlin?" Dawn asked, her voice sounding pained, like she was talking through clenched teeth. "I don't know. I-I'm trying to keep it in, to stop it from overflowing, but I don't know if I'm strong enough."

"You are Dawnie, you can-" the gentle voice began.

"Then don't."

The decisiveness in Merlin's voice surprised Arthur. "Let it go. We'll fix it after, but if you try to keep it in it could tear you apart and then escape anyway."

This, right here, Arthur suddenly realized in a moment of perfect clarity he would later wonder the truth of, was his future Court Sorcerer. Chief Warlock, Merlin was going to be his Chief Warlock. Which admittedly didn't have quite the same right to it, but sorcerers were evil and Merlin wasn't, therefore Merlin was a warlock. Court Warlock perhaps?

"W-wait, I don't think-" the other voice was protesting.

"Okay," said Dawn, apparently deciding to ignore it in favour of trusting Merlin. "Stand back then."

Arthur had absolutely no idea what was going on, but he motioned for his knights to get even further back.

Dawn screamed again, but this time it was different. There was a sense of relief in the scream, like something was erupting from her, as though she were in the throws of – Arthur cut off that thought abruptly. Which wasn't difficult to do, because in that moment the shimmery, green, barely-there mist that hung in the air began to glow. It flashed in a single, sudden glare of bright green light that had Arthur wincing and shielding his eyes.

Then the light was gone and in its place a pale green bubble about the size of a small hut hovered just above the ground.

Dawn knelt on grass-covered ground in the centre of the bubble and behind her Arthur could see the gnarly, twisted trunk of a tree he recognized as growing on the extensive grounds surrounding the large house Dawn and her fellow demon hunters lived in. Dawn looked exhausted; dark circles under her eyes highlighted by red-rimmed eyes and tear-tracked cheeks. She was breathing heavily and Arthur couldn't help but notice the bright red scratch marks running up and down her bare arms.

She looked up and met his eyes and the prince gasped at the green glow in them.

Something else in the bubble moved and Arthur watched as a young, red-headed woman wearing a long skirt and a billowy, long-sleeved blouse (it was the most modest-looking outfit he'd seen any of the women from Dawn's universe wear) knelt next to Dawn. The hand she placed on Dawn's shoulder was comforting, but her gaze was worried. Dawn glanced up at her and nodded at something she said.

The redhead then turned and looked out of the bubble, observing everything critically before meeting Arthur's gaze. She smiled warmly.

"Hello, you're Arthur," she said, her voice sweet with a breath of shyness layered with confidence. It wasn't a question, but he nodded anyway. "I'm Willow."

Arthur gaped. _This_ was the witch. Looking at her kind eyes, small hands and petite frame, he couldn't help but wonder whether all incredibly powerful 'good' magic users looked ridiculously harmless as a rule or if he just happened to meet the only two that did.

"Hello, I'm Merlin," said a voice from beside Arthur.

Willow's eyes widened, sparkling with excitement.

"I can tell," she said. She took a few steps and then glanced quickly to Dawn, who nodded with a sort of tired half-smile, before stepping out of the bubble, shuddering slightly as she passed through its green walls.

"Wow," she continued, the awe in her voice unmistakable. She raised a hand to Merlin's cheek. "I've never seen anything like it! I mean, I have to meditate to become one with the powers of nature so that I can feel what the land feels, but you-you're like a part of the land." She frowned slightly and removed her hand, stepping back with a twist of a smile on her face. "I don't even think you know what that means yet. The land, its magic, clearly loves you. Once you figure out what that means and realize how much power you have to use and how to use it, you'll be incredible! I can see it."

"Xander said you were incredibly powerful yourself," Arthur commented after a slight pause, suddenly feeling a bit embarrassed that this woman - who Xander had assured him was a very, very powerful witch – was looking up to Merlin, who was, at the moment, a mere servant.

Willow shook her head sadly and there was something in that gesture that had Arthur paying attention again.

"I have power, because I punched a hole into the well of power that exists in the world – like hammering a tap into a wine barrel. And now that I've got that hole, I can use it, but not like Merlin can. I'm tainted, see. I fell too low, let myself drown in that power – and not the good kind either – and it nearly consumed me. I still get nightmares sometimes about how close I came to losing myself completely to dark magic."

She shuddered in remembrance, before mentally pulling herself away from the dark, empty place her mind had apparently taken her to and her eyes lost the dullness that had momentarily settled inside their depths. She looked to Merlin again, her eyes sparkling once again.

"But you-you're pure! Your magic hasn't been tainted by even the slightest darkness. It's like the land's given you an all-access pass to its magic just because it likes you. Your magic really is a gift; next to you I'm just a thief, stealing magic because I'm powerful enough to do it."

"Uh, Wills?" a voice called from the bubble. It sounded slightly distorted, but very familiar. Willow's eyes widened in surprise before she whirled around to face the bubble, where – sure enough – Xander stood pointedly scanning the edges of the green bubble with exaggerated eye gestures. "I thought punching holes into other dimensions was kinda what we were trying to prevent."

"Um, well yes, we were... ideally," Willow stuttered. "But the magical forces were getting a bit too powerful and, uh, swirly and they were hurting Dawn and-"

"It would've torn me apart," Dawn's hoarse voice interrupted the witch's babble.

"I told her to let it go," Merlin added. Arthur nodded in agreement – he had to at least appear like he knew what was going on .

"Oh, hey Merlin," Xander said as he grinned widely despite the obviously tiredness that lined his face. "And Arthur."

"Hello, Xander," Arthur greeted the man with a slight nod, while Merlin waved happily – looking once again like Arthur's idiot manservant.

"Sire?" Sir Leon's soft voice said from Arthur's left. Arthur shifted his attention to the knight, immediately noting the sword in his hand and confusion on his face. "Is this the work of sorcery?"

Arthur froze. Right, the knights were still here. And watching. Damn.

Arthur cleared his throat.

"So, have you managed to figure out the cause of the curse?" he asked Xander in what he hoped wasn't too obvious a way to divert everyone's attention elsewhere.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Merlin move towards the bubble.

"Arthur," he called softly, reaching out tentatively to touch the surface of the bubble. "I don't think it's a curse."

Before it even occurred to Arthur to say anything, Merlin was stepping into the bubble. Beside him, he heard Sir Leon gasp. Merlin blinked and looked around, obviously fascinated. Arthur felt like hitting him.

"No, it's not," Dawn whispered and Arthur barely heard her. She looked up at Merlin with fresh tears in her eyes as Merlin looked down. "It's me."

Sir Leon stepped forward, so that he was just in front of Arthur but not obscuring his prince's vision. Arthur sighed. Of course it couldn't possibly be a curse: that would've been far too easy.

"Explain," he said, hoping against all hope that, perhaps, just maybe, the explanation was simple and straight-forward and did not involve Dawn and magic-casting in the same sentence.

"I'm sorry," she said and Arthur decided then and there he really didn't like explanations that began with those two words.

Merlin knelt next to Dawn and leaned in to say something to Dawn, his voice soft enough that Arthur couldn't make out the words. Then he took one of her hands in his and gave it a comforting squeeze. Dawn nodded, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again and began to speak she looked at Merlin, but her words were loud enough for all of them to hear.

"I'm not human, not really," she said and Arthur felt his world turn upside down. "Six years ago I was a ball of green energy known as the Key and there were a bunch of monks guarding me. Then this crazy evil goddess named Glory showed up, looking for the Key so that she could open a portal to her own hell dimension. So, the monks cast a powerful spell, sending the Key to the strongest warrior on the side of good: the Slayer. Except they didn't just say: 'Here take this ball of energy and protect it with your life.' Oh no, they gave the Key human form and then they gave it memories of a human life and gave the Slayer memories of a younger sister and everyone else around the Slayer also got memories of this little sister's life. They made everyone think the Key was a normal human and made the Key think she was a normal human with an ordinary life and an older sister, loving mother-"

"Xander, look out!"

Luckily Arthur's reflexes were faster than his mind, because by the time he'd dragged his thoughts from Dawn's tale, he was already in a defencive position with his sword held in front of him. Xander managed to be a bit more aware and, after a quick look behind him, he was diving to the side just as a big furry, horned demon came tearing into the bubble.

It exited the bubble and paused for a moment, its bright purple eyes darting to and fro from beneath an overhanging fringe of yellow fur. The viciously curved claws on its hands looked just as dangerous as the giant war axe it was holding. Although completely naked, long yellow fur mostly covered everything Arthur didn't want to see (he was trying very, very hard to pretend he wasn't seeing the bits of things he didn't want to see).

Arthur tensed, preparing to charge the creature.

And then the demon lept to the side and a streak of lightening sizzled past it, missing it by a handspan and disappearing into the depths of the bubble. Arthur glanced to the side and froze, jaw falling open before he could stop himself. Willow was glowing. Not just her eyes, like Merlin's did, but her entire body was encased in white light.

"Uh, Wills..."he heard Xander say. "You know, Giles kinda liked that chair."

"Oops," Willow responded with a cringe. Suddenly, her eyes widened. "Oh goddess!"

Her outstretched hand fell to her side and she began to run towards the bubble, seemingly having forgotten about the demon blocking her way.

"Willow!" Arthur called out as he ran to intercept the demon, whose eyes glittered triumphantly just before it lept at the redheaded witch.

With an extra burst of speed, Arthur managed jump in between them, giving the demon his best 'I am a knight of Camelot and you will not pass' look. The demon wasn't impressed. It swung at him with the axe and Arthur met it head-on with his sword. The impact rattled the bones in his arms, but he somehow managed to stay upright. He looked up to meet his opponent's eyes and just as he realized the brute was holding its axe with only one hand, he felt a second impact on his left side.

The flying sensation was cut short when he collided with something that made a high-pitched noise before cushioning his fall as he clattered to the ground.

"Oh boy, am I ever glad armour went out of fashion centuries ago," Willow's strained voice said from beneath him.

Arthur apologized and lept to his feet – or attempted to in any case. His limbs didn't seem to want to listen to his instructions of 'leap' and 'jump' or even 'move'. Suddenly there were two sets of arms underneath his shoulders hauling him up and off of Willow. He nodded his thanks to Sir Leon and Merlin, blinking at the wobbly sensation that produced. Sir Leon remained by his side to steady him, while Merlin helped Willow to her feet.

"Are you alright?" Arthur called behind him, not looking backwards in favour of watching the demon being besieged by Camelot's knights.

Who may as well have been a small swarm of insects for all the good they seemed to be doing. The demon looked annoyed as it swatted at them with its axe. Arthur went to raise his sword and frowned. He looked down, feeling the first signs of panic shoot through his mind when he realized he couldn't move either one of his arms. He tried to form fists, but all they did was dangle limply. All he could feel was a slight tingling sensation in his muscles, emanating from his right side, where the sensation seemed to be accompanied by a vague burn as well.

Then he noticed the blood through newly-torn gashes in his chainmail.

"I can't feel my arms," he told Sir Leon, trying to suppress the panic he could feel bubbling to the surface with greater force than before. If he couldn't feel his arms, then he couldn't grasp his sword, which meant he couldn't fight the demon and stop it from killing everyone-

"Its claws contain a paralysing venom," said Willow. Arthur's eyes widened and he snapped his head up to look at her. "B-but don't worry, it wears off in a few minutes. Er, if you're a slayer it takes a few minutes... I'm not sure how long it takes to wear off a normal person..."

Arthur looked to Merlin, who was holding his sword and examining a rather large nick in it – presumably where it had impacted with the demon's axe.

"Ah, sorry, it has magical properties of its own. Trying to get rid of it with magic might only make it worse-" Willow gasped and Arthur looked up. The witch stared at the bubble for a few moments before turning to look at him with a sympathetic wince. "Sorry, the portal's destabilizing. I-I think it might be linked to Dawn's emotions. I have to go help her, 'cause I'm not sure how much longer she can stay calm enough to hold it stable for on her own and if we let it destabilize again instead of properly closing it, then we could have multi-dimensional hub in our backyard and I don't even want to imagine how many kinds of bad that would be."

"Go, we'll take care of Arthur," Merlin assured her as he stepped up to Arthur and smiled reassuringly.

Willow nodded gratefully and dashed into the bubble. Arthur turned his attention back to the demon. The knight's siege was crumbling and Arthur knew they were stalling the inevitable at best. He dreaded to think what would happen once the demon got loose.

Sir Leon stepped in front of his prince, sword in front of him and ready to defend him.

"Sire, you should retreat to safety," the knight said. "I'll distract the beast."

Arthur opened his mouth to protest: he couldn't just run away while his men were fighting. A hand landed on his shoulder and interrupted that thought.

"I'm sorry, Arthur, but he's right," said Merlin. The sympathy in his friend's eyes shone through despite the fierce determination that made Arthur's heart stop. Just like that, he knew what Merlin – idiot that he was – was going to do.

"Merlin, no!" Arthur called out, praying that, for once, Merlin would actually listen. However, Merlin merely smiled and stepped away from him. He noticed Sir Leon tense and send a confused look Merlin's way, probably wondering just what the serving boy thought he could accomplish that would have his prince so worried.

Taking a deep breath, Merlin's eyes took on a hard edge as he turned to look upon the demon. He watched as the last of Camelot's knights was swept aside by the demon's large hand and raised his own hand in front of him.

"_In bǽlwielm forhienan se wiðere_ ," he chanted, his eyes glowing with a familiar golden light.

A wall of flames erupted in the demon's path and then encircled it. Sir Leon started, but held his ground, though he cast a surprised glance in Merlin's direction. The wall of flames burned brightly and Arthur suddenly envisioned a battlefield with Camelot's enemy trapped within a large flaming circle, bewildered, frightened knights and mercenaries having no choice but to surrender, a battle won with minimul bloodshed. The fiery circle then began to shrink, coming closer and closer to the demon, until it was enveloped in flames.

From within the fiery depths, Arthur saw the demon grin. Then it calmly walked out of its confinement, bearing not a single sign of the fire.

"Uh, sorry, we probably should've warned you," he heard Willow say from somewhere beyond the drums beating in his ears. "It's a hell demon, so totally used to fire and brimstone."

"Thanks for letting us know," Merlin grumbled and the flames died down completely. Meanwhile, Arthur wondered how anything living in hell managed to grow fur.

"Bombs away!" Xander's voice suddenly resounded throughout the training field.

A yellow-brown bag fell to the ground right in front of the demon, sickly yellow smoke exploding out of it upon impact. The demon roared and staggered backwards, squinting and clutching the lower half of its face with its free hand. Ahead of him, Arthur heard Sir Leon and Merlin utter almost identical noises of disgust, waving their arms in front of their faces. Seconds later, Arthur caught a whiff of the smoke and nearly gagged.

"What the hell is that?" he demanded.

"Stink bomb," said Xander from beside him, making Arthur jump at the proximity. Xander grinned at him and held up two more identical sacs. "We use them mostly against stray werewolves. 'Cause if you think what you're smelling is bad, just imagine what it would be like if your sense of smell was ten times better."

Arthur decided he would really rather not.

"Don't you have some way of killing this thing?" he asked instead, automatically searching out Willow.

Willow was, meanwhile, kneeling in front of Dawn, holding her hands in her own. Both women had their eyes closed and looked as though they were concentrating. Xander must've noticed him looking.

"Sorry, Willow's out for the count right now," he said. "The dimensional bubble was getting a bit too wobbly to be good – not that any bubble is actually good, but nice, stable bubble: waaay better than wibbly wobbly bubble."

Arthur thought that made sense. Maybe.

"We're really just stalling here," Xander continued. "The real cavalry had her sword shattered by Hairy's super axe, so she's gone to get her own super weapon so she can go super slayer on his ass."

"Just so long as that makes the demon super dead, I don't particularly care what your cavalry does," said Arthur, wincing as the tingling in his arms turned into more of a crawling-burning sensation. He sincerely hoped that meant he'd be able to move his arms soon and not that they were a hair's breath from falling off.

Then Sir Leon charged and Merlin chanted a few words, which summoned a gust of wind that blew the demon's long fur directly into its eyes. The knight picked his moment well and his sword slid neatly into the demon's middle. The demon screamed in pain, slashing downwards with its over-sized battle axe. Leon barely managed to pull his sword out and dance out of the way with all his limbs intact, a trail of blood trickling down his arm proving just how close it had been.

Merlin and Sir Leon looked at each other and grinned. Arthur couldn't help but join them.

"Well done you two," he said. "Merlin, I don't suppose you could create a slightly larger distraction? Like, perhaps a flying dragon or something to that effect?"

Merlin rolled his eyes. "You know, magic doesn't actually work that wa- oh." He paused, turning his head to look at the castle thoughtfully. "I could try that, I suppose... 's a bit far, though..."

"Head's up, guys," said Xander. "I think you've officially pissed the furball off."

"Xander, use another one of those stinky bags; I'm going to try something," Merlin said before falling back a few steps and then moving a bit to the right.

Xander looked to Arthur and the prince shook his head. He had no idea what his manservant was up to. It almost looked as though he was trying to get a clear view of something on the castle (a window perhaps?). Xander shrugged and then threw one of the bags he was holding at the demon. The demon paused mid-stride to bat the annoyance aiming for it only to have it explode directly in its face.

The bellow it let out was deafening.

After a few moments, Sir Leon took a deep breath and charged at it.

Showing a bit more caution this time (or perhaps half-blinded by the horrible smell himself), the knight opted to slash quickly at the demon's stomach and then dart out of reach of the demon's wicked claws. Unfortunately, the demon showed no signs of the knight's daring attack.

"Stab, not slash: good to know," Xander said from beside him.

"Stab?" a new voice said from the direction of the bubble. "Good, I can do stab. Bloody, stinking sun..."

Arthur snapped his head to the side. Spike stood at the edge of the bubble holding something large and metal in his hand as he surveyed the battlefield.

"Hey, Bleach Boy, where's the Buffster?" Xander called, not really looking at the vampire.

"Dealing with the second beastie that showed up after this one ran off."

"Oh."

Spike hefted the large metal object onto his shoulder and Arthur saw that it looked a bit like a gigantic crossbow, one that would take half his knights to carry. The vampire aimed and then released the trigger. A metal bolt twice the size of a sword sailed through the air and buried itself deep into the demon's side. The demon screamed in pain.

"You took the harpoon?" Xander asked as the creature attempted to tug at the bolt. Out of the corner of his eyes, Arthur saw Spike shrug.

"Worked, didn't it?"

"Except that now you're outta ammo."

"No, I'm not."

There was a thud accompanied with a chorus of metallic clangs as Spike shrugged a long, black sack off his shoulder and let it fall to the floor. It was followed by some shuffling and more clanging and then some quieter noises as Spike presumably re-loaded his crossbow-like weapon.

"You know, I really, really hope all of those are, like, uber-overkill," Xander commented.

Arthur clenched his fists, feeling a surge of joy and relief as he looked down and realized he could. The burning in his arms had gotten worse, which Arthur was now taking as a good sign.

The demon bellowed in pain as it finally managed to pull the bolt out of its side. Arthur really hoped the impending blood loss would kill it quickly. Sir Leon was several steps in front of Arthur, watching the demon. The demon was panting loudly, eyeing the humans with angry eyes. Then it roared and charged at Sir Leon. The knight barely managed to fling himself out of the way.

"Uh, Spike, how's that reloading coming along?" Xander called, a shrill hint of panic in his voice, which Arthur echoed in his mind as he watched the demon whirl around to where Sir Leon was scrambling to his feet.

"I did!" the vampire called back, irritation evident in his voice. "Bloody thing's stuck!"

"Stuck? What do you mean, stuck?"

The demon grinned and sliced the air in front of it with one mighty swing of its gigantic war axe. Then it began to advance on Sir Leon.

"I mean, it's been sitting in a bloody warehouse for something like 150 years and doesn't like the workout I'm trying to give it!"

"Well you've got about 30 seconds to convince it otherwise!"

"Not gonna 'appen, mate."

Sir Leon managed to struggle to his feet by using his sword like a cane. Arthur's eyes widened, his breath freezing in his chest, when he noticed the knight favouring his left leg – and probably downplaying it as much as possible in order to not give away how badly he was injured to his enemy.

"Great, just great. Arthur, sorry, but I'm borrowing your sword."

Arthur glanced away from where Sir Leon had managed to duck under and then scoot away from the demon's axe, which had just attempted to cleave him in two. His first instinct was to protest – a knight simply did not give away his only weapon – but he clamped down on the reaction, knowing the sword was useless to him at the moment without the use of his arms. He met the determination in Xander's eyes and nodded.

Xander gripped the sword tightly and took a deep breath.

"Heeyaaa!" he screamed at the top of his lungs as he took off full-tilt at the demon, sword waving above his head as though it should've had a banner attached to it..

Arthur really, _really_ hoped the man was doing that just to distract the demon, because at the moment he was making Merlin look like a master swordsman.

Thankfully, Xander proved quickly that his actual abilities were far better than that initial display hinted at. He even managed to hold his own for a short while, which at least allowed Sir Leon a brief respite from the battle. Unfortunately, the large nick in the sword Merlin had been observing earlier had been rather serious and, after deflecting a second swing from the demon's axe, the top half of the sword shattered away, leaving Xander staring at a broken sword with a look of baffled horror on his face.

A punch at his torso sent Xander flying through the air and back into the bubble from whence he came, colliding with Spike, who was still attempting to make the gigantic contraption in his hands work.

Somewhere, off to the side, Merlin let out a triumphant shout.

Arthur looked over at his manservant with a frown. What was the idiot doing anyway? And now that he thought about it, wasn't he supposed to be some sort of really powerful wizard? Merlin didn't notice Arthur's glare, he was grinning from ear to ear, sweat pouring down his brow as he looked into the distance. Whatever Merlin had just managed to do, it hadn't been easy. Whether or not it would prove worth it, was, of course, another question altogether.

Arthur squinted into the distance, trying to see what about the castle had Merlin so excited. Just as he thought he saw movement on the battlements, a cry from Sir Leon had him turning back to the battle.

The knight was still on his feet and in possession of his sword, but was now sporting a brand new cut on his right hip. Arthur cursed. He could fully clench his fists now, but could only move his arms slightly.

"Merlin, I hope you have something very clever-" he began, but Merlin ignored him completely.

"Sir Leon, stay back!" his manservant called out.

Sir Leon, who'd began to circle the demon in the opposite direction of Arthur in order to keep the monster's attention as far away from his prince as possible, paused and spared a confused glance to Merlin. Like Arthur himself, he was probably wondering why now, of all times, Merlin had decided to give out useless advice.

Which, as it turned out, wasn't quite all that useless after all.

The demon's eyes lit up when Sir Leon glanced away, smirking as it raised its massive axe one again. Arthur froze. It lunged, its speed defying its bulk. Sir Leon's eyes widened, but he managed to hold off the demon's blow with his sword. Just. The demon pressed its advantage and swung again, apparently abandoning any sort of finesse it may have possessed in favour of simply tiring its opponent out. Sir Leon attempted to backpedal away as quickly as his right leg would allow.

None of them had noticed the fallen dagger until the knight was tripping over it.

The next thing Arthur knew, he was being held back by long, skinny arms. There was also a lot of screaming involved.

"Arthur, wait!" he heard Merlin yell above the din (oh, apparently that was him trying to taunt the demon into turning its attack away from Sir Leon).

He swiped at his manservant to dislodge him and some part of his mind registered that, although his movements were sluggish, he was at least able to move his arm. Arthur watched helplessly as the demon stepped onto Sir Leon's sword.

"Merlin, I order you to do something!" he cried desperately.

"I already have you great prat!"

The demon lifted its axe and swung.

A shadow swooped down and there was a painful-sounding screech of steel hitting stone with great force. Arthur winced. Then he blinked, staring incredulously at a still-alive Sir Leon, who looked equally perplexed at still being alive. Their eyes met and they looked to the demon. It was screaming in frustration as it tried to dislodge its new assailant, who was silent except for the heavy sound of beating wings. Then the demon swung the axe wildly and the creature flew off, just out of range of the blow.

It took Arthur several moments to realize what he was seeing. His jaw dropped.

"Merlin, is that one of the castle gargoyles?" he asked, scarce believing he was even asking the question.

"Um, it might be..."

The gargoyle (because that's exactly what it was and Arthur even knew exactly which battlement it normally overlooked) took another flying dive at the demon, sharp talons swiping at its head. It caught the demon across the side of its face and then immediately turned around in mid-air for another go. This time the demon met it with a mighty swing of its axe, hitting the gargoyle square-on and stopping the vicious-looking talons from reaching it. The gargoyle didn't budge, but Arthur's eyes widened at the crack that appeared on one of its shoulders.

"Damn," Merlin whispered, raising his hand. He muttered something under his breath and his eyes glowed. The crack glowed and then repaired itself.

Unfortunately, Arthur hadn't been the only one who'd seen that. The demon's furious eyes glared at Merlin. With a sideways shove using its axe, it threw the gargoyle off to the side and then snarled at the sorcerer.

And then Sir Leon was there, his sword piercing the demon's hide almost to the hilt before he bellowed a war cry and slashed to the side with as much force as he could. The partially-disembowlled demon screamed and fell to its knees.

"The 'ead!" a voice hollered. "Chop off its 'ead!"

Sir Leon raised his sword. It glowed blue seconds before it hit the base of the demon's neck. Its head flew off to the side and then the lifeless body flopped to the ground with a dull thud.

Relief flooded Arthur, nearly sending him to his knees. However, one look at Sir Leon's battered form and he knew he had no right to that luxury. It had been the knight's hard-earned victory, not his.

"Sir Leon!" Merlin cried, already running to support the knight. Arthur followed at a more sedate pace.

"That was an excellent job, Sir Leon," he said to the knight, squeezing his shoulder (and if the knight noticed he had the grip of a wet kitten, then he had the tact to ignore it). "You are an honour to the knights of Camelot."

Merlin rolled his eyes as he examined the wound on Sir Leon's hip. "What he's trying to say, is that you were amazing!"

"Thank you, sire, Merlin," said the knight with a tired smile. He looked behind Arthur curiously. "I would, however, be interested to know how exactly I came to be aided by what appears to be one of the castle's gargoyles."

Arthur turned to look behind him. Sure enough, there was the gargoyle using the demon's long fur to carefully clean blood off its claws.

"Um, right, yes, the gargoyle..." Merlin began.

"Yes, the gargoyle," said Arthur, already dreading the headache that was inevitably on its way. "It would be rather nice if it could be conveniently gone and in its regular position by the time my father returns and decides to destroy it as a construct of magic and then gives orders to hunt down the sorcerer, who conjured it."

"Animated it," Merlin corrected. Both Arthur and Sir Leon turned to stare at him. "Er.." Merlin faltered, looking a bit sheepish. "It already existed, therefore it wasn't conjured, just given, um, life... sort of. So, 'animated' not 'conjured.'"

"I highly doubt my father will care about the distinction."

"Merlin..." said Sir Leon, staring at the young man with wide eyes, looking a bit stunned. "I thought perhaps that... but that fire too, that-that was you."

Merlin winced and Arthur wasn't sure whether he wanted to hit his manservant for giving himself away like that or simply beg the knight not to tell his father. Then he realized the knight was looking at him. Arthur met his eyes calmly, trying to determine what he would do about this revelation. A few moments later, Sir Leon apparently made his decision and nodded to his prince with a small, please smile. Arthur smiled back and then they turned to look at the gargoyle, once again, which had now finished cleaning and was staring at them, its head cocked slightly to the side – looking a bit like one of Arthur's hunting dogs.

"Well, then I suppose whoever this mysterious sorcerer is, he must be an incredibly brave and noble soul to risk so much to save my life and the prince's," Sir Leon finally said. "It seems I owe him my life and my friendship."

Merlin grinned.

"I'm sure the mysterious sorcerer is happy you and the prince are alive and will gladly accept your friendship."

A growl interrupted their gargoyle-viewing. The gargoyle raised itself onto its haunches, lips curling into a silent snarl. Arthur exchanged looks with Merlin and Sir Leon and, as one, the three of them turned to their right.

This time, the demon had blue fur and a helmet with three horns sticking out of it.

* * *

Author's Notes:

**In bǽlwielm forhienan se wiðere –** A variation of the spell Merlin used to defeat the afnac in 1x03; my thanks to Merlin Wiki for the possible spelling and translation. It should mean 'In fire's heat defeat the hostile' or something like that.

Thanks so much for reading!


	13. Final Encounter

****Oh wow, I seriously can't believe it! Like the title says, this is the last chapter of this story. Yeah, I know, took me long enough, but better late than never, right? Right? Anyway, thanks to everyone, who's been reading up 'till now and especially to those of you, who've taken the time to review. And, of course, to my lovely beta, **The Glaistig**, for reading it over for me and making sure it's presentable.

Having said that, make sure you all stay tuned for the Epilogue, which should be up within a week or so!

Disclaimer: I own the plot and the bubble thingy... and maybe the demons... if I squint at the fine print. Everything else belongs to the minds of other creative geniuses.

* * *

**Key in the Kingdom**

**The Final Encounter**

_A growl interrupted their gargoyle-viewing. The gargoyle raised itself onto its haunches, lips curling into a silent snarl. Arthur exchanged looks with Merlin and Sir Leon and, as one, the three of them turned to their right._

_This time, the demon had blue fur and a helmet with three horns sticking out of it._

Arthur glanced to the green bubble. Dawn and Willow were sitting opposite each other with their eyes closed and holding hands. They looked calm and Arthur was glad Dawn no longer seemed full of that painful desperation he'd seen earlier. Which was great for her, but for him it meant no one was paying attention to what was going on on their side.

"Alright, where did this one come from?" Merlin asked.

"I do not know," Sir Leon answered him.

Arthur took a deep breath and clenched his fists as he slowly lifted his arms, trying to gauge whether his limbs were finally recovered again to hold a sword and fight. They'd have to be, he decided, because Sir Leon was in no fit state to fight another one of those brutes. There was movement in the corner of his eyes and Arthur glanced over to see the animated gargoyle moving forward with its wings spread, sharp talons held in front of it like the weapons they were and a nasty, tooth-filled snarl on its face as it slowly inched towards the demon.

It was remarkably quiet. A bit like one would expect a chunk of stone to sound, really.

Then gargoyle turned its head and met Arthur's eyes. The snarl disappeared from its face and it froze, cold, stone eyes boring into his. After a few moments, Arthur cleared his throat. It was very unnerving staring into eyes that held absolutely no expression.

"Well, um, I suppose we've got ourselves another demon to take down," he said. That earned him a toothy grin, though its eyes remained expressionless.

"Arthur, can you hold a sword yet?" he heard Merlin ask.

Glad for the excuse to turn away from the creepy gargoyle, Arthur looked over and saw his manservant holding a sword he must've gotten from one of the fallen knights. He reached for it and Merlin handed it to him, watching his master's reactions closely. Arthur very nearly dropped the sword. He was sure swords weren't normally this heavy and wondered what the odds were that one of the knights was purposefully using a heavier-than-normal sword for training (actually, that wasn't a bad idea at all). Probably not good, which meant he still wasn't completely recovered yet.

However, in that moment, the blue-furred demon let out a massive bellow that seemed to shake the ground beneath them. Arthur may never have come across anything like this creature before, but he certainly knew a war cry when he heard one. Especially when it was as loud and sounded as angry as this particular one did.

He took a deep breath, gripped his sword as tightly as he could and prayed for a miracle as he charged right back at it.

He ducked underneath the demon's first swing and swung at its right leg. He knew he didn't have the strength to do a lot of damage, but perhaps if he crippled it... Arthur felt a feeling of great satisfaction as a thin strip of blood welled up around where he'd hit. Unfortunately, the demon didn't really seem to notice the hit and Arthur just barely avoided its next blow.

The gargoyle chose that moment to swoop in and lash at the demon's sword-arm. The demon deflected it, shoving it out of the way with the horns on its helmet. The gargoyle, however, twisted in mid-air and came back, its jaws open in a silent battle cry, slashing at the back of the demon's neck.

The demon roared and swung its massive sword (Arthur decidedly wasn't thinking about just how easily that thing could cleave a man in half) at the animated stone creature. Arthur took a deep breath and gripped his sword as tightly as he could and held it up at shoulder-height. With a mighty war cry that probably sounded stronger than he actually felt, he charged.

His sword slid between long, blue fur with some difficulty, but Arthur grit his teeth and refused to pull out until it was half-way to the hilt. He heard the demon scream and pulled out just as he noticed movement in its upper torso, which meant its arms were moving. His arms weren't fast enough and suddenly his left shoulder and upper back exploded in pain.

He must've cried out, because he heard some sort of scream over the overwhelming pain that spread down his spine. He forced his eyes open and saw the ground was much closer than he remembered it being. His eyes darted to the side just in time to see a massive, clawed foot coming towards him. He rolled to the side to minimize the impact and braced himself.

The impact never came. Instead Arthur heard the demon grunt and the familiar screech of steel against rock pierced the air. Still crouching, he turned to look at the demon and blinked at how far away it was. Surely he hadn't managed to roll that far away. And yet there it was: half the practice field stretched between Arthur and the blue beast.

"Sire!" a voice called out and then there was someone beside him, grabbing him by the arms and helping him stand. Arthur glanced at Sir Leon and winced, immediately renewing his efforts at standing – the knight's injuries were much worse than his! "Sire, we must come up with a plan. I don't believe Merlin will be able to do that many more times. It appears his strength is being quite strained by maintaining the gargoyle."

Arthur tore his eyes away from the demon (which was regaining its footing a bit too quickly for Arthur's liking) in order to look back at Merlin. Sir Leon was right, the sorcerer's face looked awfully drawn and pale, the only thing that seemed to be holding him up was the determination blazing in his golden-rimmed eyes. His eyes turned back to the demon. Okay, so Merlin clearly wasn't going to be able to take much more and Sir Leon, although standing beside him now with his sword ready, was badly injured.

It looked like it really was up to him and the gargoyle.

No sooner had he thought of his unusual battle partner, he saw the gargoyle once again swoop down at the demon. This time, the demon crouched down, neatly avoiding its adversary. Arthur cursed under his breath, annoyed that this demon wasn't just some dumb beast: it was learning. Then, as if to prove Arthur's observation, the demon gripped its sword with both hands and turned to watch as the gargoyle turned around in mid-air. It snarled. Arthur suddenly remembered the crack the other demon's axe had made on the gargoyle's shoulder.

"Watch out!" he cried, realizing that this time Merlin might not be able to fix it as easily if it got damaged.

At the last moment, the demon side-stepped the gargoyle and swung his sword, catching the stone creature's side. The force of the swing caused a dull ring and then a crash as the gargoyle flew several metres and slammed into the ground. Merlin cried out in horror, but Arthur didn't turn back to watch, trusting Sir Leon to see to the sorcerer as he contained his own despair.

The demon bellowed in triumph as the gargoyle tried to pick itself off the ground, unbalanced by the lack of a wing and half a leg.

Arthur turned back to the demon, took a deep breath and prepared to once again engage the demon. Behind him, he could hear Sir Leon doing the same. He gripped his sword tighter, pleased to notice his grip felt much stronger and charged.

This demon was clearly a much more accomplished swordsman than his kin had been and for a few moments, Arthur felt as though he could almost pretend he was fighting one of those huge warriors from the northern lands. Except that even they didn't leave his arms ringing with the force of their blows. From somewhere in the midst of all that fur, the demon appeared to be grinning – and Arthur desperately hoped that didn't mean it was playing with him.

Despite his best efforts, eventually the demon's superior strength prevailed and Arthur's faltered.

A well-aimed strike sent the sword in Arthur's hands flying and a second one came so closely after it that the prince barely had time to avoid the blade intending to cleave him in two. Pain exploded across his right thigh and he screamed, falling to the ground with barely enough presence of mind to catch himself with his left hand before his head impacted with it.

Arthur looked up and met the demon's eyes, alight with victory and savage with bloodthirst. It took a step towards him and then its eyes darted to its side. Then came Merlin's voice, shouting out something in a familiarly foreign language, magic lacing every word. Arthur used its distraction to scramble backwards, wanting to be well enough away from it before he attempted standing.

Unfortunately, he was too busy concentrating on breathing through the pain in his leg when he moved that he didn't notice the demon's eyes narrow. It wasn't until Sir Leon's arms came around him from behind to help him stand that his concentration returned fully back to the demon. His eyes widened in horror and he called a panicked warning to Merlin in the same moment as the demon threw its sword at the chanting sorcerer.

Sir Leon's equally horrified exclamation echoed in Arthur's ears.

Arthur followed the sword's path in horror as it raced through the air towards Merlin. Merlin stopped mid-chant, his eyes widening and flashing gold and then he just sort of ... slid around the sword and stumbled backwards, falling onto his backside with a wince. He looked shaken, but very alive.

Arthur sagged with relief.

However, the relief was only momentary, because then Sir Leon was pulling him the rest of the way to his feet, grunting as the motions aggravated his own injuries. Arthur put all his weight onto his left leg, gritting his teeth when he put pressure on his right. He glanced quickly at the injury. It looked deep, but it certainly wasn't fatal. He could still fight.

Not having a weapon was a much bigger problem. Especially with the demon now striding determinedly towards him again.

"Get back, sire!" Sir Leon commanded as he drew his sword and stepped in front of Arthur.

"Sir Leon, you're in no condition to fight!" he hissed at the knight.

"True, but at least I have a weapon."

Arthur growled in frustration, his eyes scrambling around for a weapon. Some of the knights around him were slowly starting to come to and a few were already crawling their way out of the immediate vicinity of the battle. That gave Arthur an idea. Holding a hand to the wound in his thigh in order to not loose more blood than he had to, he limped to one of the still-unconscious knights. Kneeling beside him Arthur's vision greyed a bit, but the prince managed to shake that off and then continued trying his best to ignore the pain.

The demon reached Sir Leon and neatly side-stepped the knight's sword before shoving him to the side as though he were but a minor irritant. Sir Leon flew through the air, but Arthur could've sworn he saw him slow down just before hitting the ground several metres later, however he didn't have the time to dwell on that.

The demon was mere steps away from him and the sword Arthur was trying to wrestle out of its sheath was stuck. He glanced downwards quickly, hating to take his eyes off the demon, but needing to find out why he couldn't remove the sword. It was stuck on the bottom of the knight's tunic. Arthur cursed and looked up again as his hands blindly fumbled with cloth and metal. He heard the knight groan.

A shadow fell over him and Arthur knew he'd just run out of time.

The demon stared down at him and grinned. Arthur glared at it, suddenly feeling very angry. No, not angry, this was not mere anger: this was fury. He was furious at the demon, at Fate for sentencing him to die without allowing him a fair fight or at least a proper battlefield first, at Merlin for not being powerful enough to simply stop the demons with a single spell and at Dawn for bringing these monsters upon them in the first place. And furious at himself for not being strong enough to protect his people.

The demon raised a huge fist and Arthur knew he wasn't going to be fast enough to avoid it.

Suddenly, the monster's eyes darted to the side and then it growled, leaping backwards. Moments later a giant metal arrow embedded itself into the ground. Arthur blinked at it, unable to comprehend for a few moments what the hell had just happened.

"Bloody 'ell!" he heard an annoyed voice exclaim.

"Gee nice shot, Spike," came a second voice, this one sarcastic.

"Oi, you want to try aiming through a bloody green portal bubble? It's not exactly as easy as it looks. 'Sides, I'd had 'im if the stupid thing 'adn't jumped out of the way."

Arthur breathed a sigh of relief. He'd almost forgotten about Xander and Spike. He looked over at the bubble just as Spike lifted another one of the huge arrows, aimed it at the demon and threw it through the bubble. The demon leapt out of the way again. It roared at them in anger and then hurried over to where the body of its fallen kin lay on the ground and then grabbed the massive battle axe laying next to the corpse.

Which meant the demon was now armed again. Wonderful.

Arthur quickly untangled the sword he'd been holding and pulled it out of its sheath. Slowly he stood, having no choice but to lean on the sword for support as he did. The sword scraped the ground, bringing the demon's attention back to him. For a few moments it looked between the Arthur and the bubble, as though trying to figure out which bug to stamp out first.

Spike threw another arrow at it. This time it batted it away with the axe.

"Spike, how many more arrows do you have?" Arthur called out, trying to figure out a strategy.

"Oh, 'bout another dozen or so, I'd say," Spike called back as he picked up another one.

Arthur nodded, gripping the sword in both hands. It would take some very precise timing for Arthur to attack the demon just as it was off-balance from avoiding one of the vampire's arrows. It would also likely take someone much faster than he was with his injured thigh. The prince took a deep breath. Then he transferred the weight of the sword into one hand, knowing he'd need speed more than he'd need strength for this to work and running was easier this way.

He braced himself onto the tips of his toes, waiting for Spike's throw, letting the heat of battle wash over him and dull the pain in his leg.

The second the arrow came through the bubble, Arthur was running, flying as fast as he could towards the demon. The massive blue hairy creature swung away from it, avoiding it with ease. It hadn't noticed Arthur. Didn't, until he was nearly on top of it. Arthur screamed out a battle cry as the demon's eyes widened. It tried to move out of the way, but, for once, its bulk worked against it and it could quite get enough momentum to move in the opposite direction fast enough.

Arthur put all of his strength behind his sword, adding his second hand to help moments before the tip of his sword touched the demon's hide. His sword slid into its side and the demon howled.

Arthur pulled the sword out and stumbled backwards, as far away from the demon as he could, before his leg gave out from under him. He caught himself with the sword, refusing to allow himself to fall completely. The battle wasn't over yet.

But he was suddenly feeling oh so horribly exhausted.

And, really, two major sword wounds should be enough to take down any beast. Unfortunately, these demons seemed to have the constitution of half an army. He looked around at his own knights. Okay, so maybe an entire army. He looked back at the demon. It was panting heavily and looking highly annoyed. Not in severe pain: annoyed, possibly a bit angry... Damn.

It found Arthur and looked at him with furious eyes.

And suddenly, there was someone standing in front of Arthur. Someone, who looked an awful lot like a certain idiotic manservant of his.

"Merlin, get away from here!" he ordered.

"No," Merlin replied.

Arthur gaped. "No? Merlin, I think you're forgetting who's the prince here. When I tell you to do something you-"

"Sorry, sire, but no, I'm not going anywhere," Merlin interrupted and Arthur. "You're in no condition to fight properly, Sir Leon's barely conscious and the rest of the knights... well, they're even more useless than I am most of the time. I may have used a lot of power already, but I'm in better shape than anyone else."

Arthur really, really wished he could argue Merlin's point. So, instead, he managed to find the energy to rise to his feet. This resulted in a brief dizziness. He was apparently losing more blood than he could afford to. There was a round-shaped light forming in Merlin's upturned palm and somewhere, above the whooshing in his ears, he thought he heard Xander and Spike shouting something.

He looked up again just as a blur of black and blue with blond hair leapt out of the bubble and attacked the demon.

At first all Arthur could do was blink in confusion, wondering where this new warrior had come from. Clangs of steel came from the two opponents and he couldn't help but feeling awe at the way the new warrior met the demon's axe blow for blow without faltering. Although obviously smaller, the newcomer seemed of equal strength to the massive hairy beast.

And then the battle paused for a few moments as their weapons clashed and Arthur's eyes widened when he realized their saviour was a _woman_. Seconds later, the prince felt very glad he hadn't said that out loud, as he realized that really should not have surprised him. He'd met Faith, after all. The young woman battling the demon was clearly a Slayer, though one he hadn't met before – in fact, if he was remembering correctly, Xander had been waiting for Dawn's sister. Which meant that this was probably Buffy Summers.

That had Arthur suddenly paying attention to every single detail of the battle. After everything he'd heard about this particular woman, he didn't want to miss anything. Besides, she might just need his help at some point...

He took in the female warrior before him: she was small, tiny in comparison to the demon she was fighting, but certainly shorter than Dawn and he imagined she would probably look rather delicate next to most of his knights. Her hair was shorter than how most women in Camelot kept theirs, but still long enough to brush her shoulders. However, the black, single-strapped top she was wearing did nothing to hide the muscles on her arms and by the way she fought Arthur would hazard a guess the woman was indeed all muscle. Her blue jeans were so tight Arthur wasn't sure how she managed enough flexibility to fight properly, but her actions proved that she did.

Especially when she leapt over the demon's axe and used its shoulder as a platform for her left foot, while kicking it across the face with her right and then somersaulting backwards to land on her feet in a low crouch. Arthur heard a few gasps from some of the now-conscious knights, but ignored them. He would berate them on the ridiculous ease in which they were defeated later. He now had extra ammunition against them – they had no idea just how accomplished and amazing Buffy Summers was, after all. All they knew was that a woman had managed to defeat a demon that all of them put together couldn't.

Oh god, he suddenly realized with a groan he couldn't stop (and then had to reassure Merlin that he was fine, or at least no less fine than he'd been a minute ago). Morgana would_ never_ let him forget this.

He looked back to the battle. Buffy Summers was covered in sweat and dirt and there were a few rather deep-looking cuts on her arms and one on her side, but she didn't seem to feel them. The two opponents broke apart for a few moments and circled each other, allowing Arthur to get a good look at her face. Her blue eyes were intent on the demon, alert and hard as the steel sword in her hand. Shivers ran down his spine at the look: it was the look of a warrior, of one who'd seen hard battle and lived to tell about it. Losing was not an option for her. She was the worst kind of opponent: one with skills and strength and the will to defend something at all costs.

And worst of all, it was controlled. Despite the enjoyment of battle Arthur could see in her eyes, they were neither wild nor taken over by bloodlust.

The demon bellowed and Arthur snapped out of his contemplation, cursing himself for the inattention as it staggered away from Buffy Summers, blood flowing freely from a wound in its shoulder. Idly, Arthur wondered whether it would be able to use it anymore. He didn't get much time to wonder, though, because Buffy didn't give the demon time to assess its injury and followed it with a burst of speed Arthur had a hard time following. A single punch into its middle, next to the stab wound Arthur had given it, sent the demon staggering backwards several steps with a pained grunt. Then she stabbed her sword into the demon and tore it out right away, dancing to the side and away from the wild swing of its axe.

The demon was panicking, Arthur realized. Buffy Summer had already won this battle.

Sure enough, shortly after sidestepping the wild swings, Buffy whirled around and delivered a high kick that cut across the demon's lower back. The impact sent the already-unsteady demon to its knees. Which was, apparently, exactly what she'd been waiting for. The next swing of her sword passed through the demon's neck, neatly decapitating it and ending the battle.

Stunned silence ruled the practise field as Buffy remained crouched, her sword in her hands and her eyes alert for any movement, waiting for her next opponent. After a few moments, she seemed to decide there was no more danger and relaxed the grip on her sword as she straightened up. Arthur released the breath he was holding.

"Buffy Summers?" he heard Merlin ask.

The blonde warrior turned to them with narrow, wary eyes and nodded. Merlin gulped and then smiled (Arthur didn't have to see the smile to know it was there, it was practically radiating from the warlock). The swirling ball of magic in his hand disappeared.

"Dawn told us a lot about you," Merlin continued. "I'm Merlin and this is Prince Arthur."

Buffy Summers blinked and then her eyes filled with excitement.

"Oh wow, seriously?" she said, her voice somehow sounding too young for an experienced warrior. And then a beaming smile split her face as she bounded towards them with a bounce to her step. "Oh my God, I can't believe it!"

Great warriors certainly did_ not_ squeal like that, they just didn't. Though now he could definitely see the family resemblance to Dawn.

"So, I'm in, like, Camelot then?" the blonde said, looking around excitedly. "That's sooo cool! I was totally mad at Dawn that she hadn't hold me she was dimension-hopping, but then everyone else got to dimension hop and I wasn't around and I was, like, completely jealous that I hadn't gotten the chance to 'cause of being in Italy with my boyfriend and there was this killer monster snail on the loose in Greece – and yeah, that shouldn't sound like it'd take much to kill, but let me tell you, snails are waay tougher than they look."

By this point, Buffy was practically bouncing with energy and Arthur was feeling something between incredulity at the transformation and amazement that after defeating two of these demons she still had this much energy. Of course, she might've had help with the first one for all he knew, but so did Sir Leon and he was most certainly not bouncing up and down with energy.

Not that Sir Leon would bounce even if he had the energy for it.

"Hey, Buff!" Xander suddenly called. Buffy turned to him. "Willow thinks they're ready to close this sucker down!"

"Oh. Does she have to?"

Was the great warrior actually pouting? Arthur blinked. Yes, yes she was.

_Yes, we do._

Hearing a voice inside his head made Arthur stumble in surprise. Merlin managed to grab him before he completely embarrassed himself by falling over.

"Dammit, Will, a bit of warning before you do that!" Buffy grumbled. Arthur agreed.

_Um... oops. Sorry guys. _

Now that he was almost expecting it, Arthur didn't jump at what he recognized as Willow's voice in his head. It was rather odd though, how he could actually feel her sheepish apology as well as hear it.

_We sort of had to make this up as we went along. It's Dawn's power that's needed to close the portal, but she doesn't quite know how to control it, so I've been helping to, uh, guide the power, I suppose. The initial rupture caused two tears in the dimensional barriers: one to the hell dimension and one to Camelot. The bigger one was between us and Camelot, which is why we can actually see the green bubble thingy. The second one was more of a weakening than an actual hole between dimensions, which is why we couldn't actually see it – well, Dawn could see it, but she's special. _

As though in answer to Willow's comment, Arthur could feel a soft wave of what he could only describe as 'snark'. He blinked.

"Dawn?" he asked out loud, not knowing how to respond in his head. In reply he felt a new wave of tired, yet pleased, greeting.

_Dawn says she's fine, just tired. Communicating through dimensions is a bit tricky and Dawn's magic works differently than regular magic and she's never tried much mind-communication to begin with... Um, anyway, we've managed to fix the barriers of the hell dimension, so no more surprise demons, but now we have to fix the green bubble thingy._

"What if you just left it?" Merlin asked.

"You mean other than my father ordering the execution of anyone even remotely involved with it as soon as he returns?" Arthur asked back with a roll of his eyes.

_Nothing good, sorry. Right now it's only stable because Dawn and I – well, mostly Dawn – are keeping it that way. If we let it go it could start to grow and what happened with the hell dimension and the demons could happen with other dimensions and that wouldn't be good._

"Yup, definitely not good," Buffy agreed. "Okay, I'm on my way."

She turned to Arthur and Merlin.

"It was nice meeting you guys. I wish it'd been longer; Faith tells me you're real good with a sword." Arthur straightened at the comment.

"Yes, well, it was an honour to finally meet you as well after all we've heard about you."

"Yeah, well, just so you know, only the good parts are true."

Arthur grinned widely. "Naturally. Tell Dawn to bring you with her the next time she decides to, um, hop in." He paused. "Only, make sure she leaves the demons and various beasts behind."

Buffy laughed, a delightful, happy sound that Arthur found it hard to believe belonged to the same person, who'd just killed that demon only minutes ago. Inside his mind, Arthur heard a faint, annoyed shove. His grin widened.

"Good-bye, Dawn," he said softly.

Inside his mind, that faint wave of feeling felt a bit sad and apologetic as it echoed his farewell. It was then that Arthur realized he'd probably never see Dawn again. He looked to Buffy, who was smiling sadly at him.

"Sorry," she said. "Dawn probably won't be coming back to visit. And not just because I'd tie her up and lock her up if she started dimension-hopping on her own, 'cause the girl gets in enough trouble when she's confined to one dimension let alone multiple dimensions."

A faint protest-like feeling echoed into his mind as Buffy winked mischievously at him. Then her expression sobered.

"You'll be king soon, Arthur," Buffy said and Arthur's own amusement vanished at those words. "Your future awaits and other such graduation ceremony clichès. The point is, you're destined to be the Once and Future King of England and we can't really help you with that. Giving spoilers never ends well. h

Arthur gulped, the burden on his shoulders suddenly felt so much heavier than before.

"So Dawn mentioned. That history will remember all my actions forever and I'll be judged-"

"Oh screw history. Just be Arthur and let history do its own thing." She frowned. "And I'm pretty sure I need to kill Andrew for that one."

_I think the actual quote is: 'Don't be a great man. Just be a man and let history make its own judgements.'._

Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Guess you have some Andrew-killing to do too, huh?"

_Actually, it was Xander, who made me watch that movie._

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I'm off. Maybe I'll catch you around, Arthur, Merlin."

"You never know," Merlin answered with a twinkle in his eyes. "We might just pop in on you one day."

"Just remember, if you pop in on me while I'm in the shower, I will kick your asses back to Camelot - without magic."

Then with a final smile, Buffy Summers turned and walked towards the green bubble. She paused only to pick up the demon's axe and heft it over her shoulder as though it weighed almost nothing. After she'd passed through the bubble, Arthur and Merlin exchanged farewell waves with Xander and Spike and then Arthur turned his attention to Dawn.

Dawn must've noticed his stare, because her eyes opened and met his. Arthur gasped. Her eyes were glowing a green so bright he could see it clearly even through the green of the bubble surrounding her. She smiled at him and Arthur smiled back. Beside him, he noticed Merlin waving at her.

Then Willow must've said something, because the smile disappeared and Dawn looked at the redheaded witch and nodded. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. A few seconds passed and Arthur saw her grit her teeth and her brows furrow in heavy concentration.

The edges of the bubble suddenly began to waver and Arthur tensed. And then, as suddenly as it had first appeared, the bubble gradually shrank and kept shrinking until it was gone.

No sooner had it gone, then – to Arthur's great amusement – Merlin suddenly began shouting orders to the servants hanging about. Someone was sent to alert Gaius, a few of the stable hands were immediately herded up to help carry Sir Leon up to the physician's tower, some of the guards set to disposing of the demons' carcasses (although, the helmet and leftover sword were to be shined and brought to the audience chamber for the king's perusal upon his return) and anyone else to help the rest of the knights find their way to the tower should they need it.

Arthur snorted and shook his head at his manservant when he then came up to him.

"Well, what do you know, I might never make a decent servant out of you, but apparently you might just manage to be a competent Chief Warlock one day," he commented.

Merlin snorted.

"Why thank you, sire. Does this mean I don't have to clean your boots anymore?"

"Of course you do. You're not my Chief Warlock yet. Besides, you do it with magic anyway."

Without another word, he turned and began to slowly walk back towards the castle, using the sword he'd borrowed as a walking stick. He'd barely made it two steps when Merlin was suddenly there, swinging Arthur's left arm over his shoulder and taking half of his prince's weight. Arthur didn't say anything, but flashed his manservant a small, grateful smile.

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Thanks for reading, guys! And once again, make sure to stay tuned for the Epilogue. Oh yeah, and please review!

Author's Notes:

**'Don't be a great man. Just be a man and let history make its own judgements.'.** - The quote comes directly from _Star Trek: First Contact_. I've always loved that quote and it made me very excited to be able to ligitimately use it in a story – although I do sort of love Buffy's version better. ;P


	14. Epilogue

Okay, so in an effort to save my sanity from the SNOW that's falling outside, here's the epilogue. Can't believe this makes this story complete. To everyone who's been reading this: thanks for sticking with my guys! And also thanks to my wonderful beta, **Glastaig.**

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything but the plot and maybe a few green bubbles.

**WARNING:** If you are expecting a light-hearted, funny epilogue, sorry, this is not it. Tissues may be necessary. Arthur and Merlin hijacked the chapter from me and demanded I give it the proper solemnity the topic deserved. Also, it sort of contains spoilers for the entire series, but they're minor - as in, if you haven't seen season 4, you might not even notice them, especially since this story is now a bit of an AU anyway.

* * *

**A Key in the Kingdom **

**Epilogue**

The smell of blood clung to the air like a desperate lover, the once bright green field now coloured a dull, dark red-brown. Somewhere in the distance, a flock of crows argued amongst each other, the only sound that permeated the stillness.

Merlin fell to his knees, not noticing how the ground squelched underneath him. All he felt was despair. All his power, all his determination to keep his king safe, was useless. He knew, had known since the moment he'd stepped out of the cave Morgana had managed to imprison him in. His king was dead. He could feel the intense sadness in his bones as Albion mourned for him.

He simply hadn't wanted to believe it.

If only he hadn't left Arthur's side to confront Morgana, to make one, last attempt to find a peaceful resolution with the woman he'd once considered a good friend. But there was too much anger, too much hate and bitterness within her soul. She looked back in bitterness and saw only what she thought could've been. She'd seen Merlin and Arthur's silence about his magic a betrayal and Merlin keeping silent about her magical powers instead of helping her was unforgivable.

Merlin knew why he'd never spoken to Morgana. The dragon's words echoed too loudly in his mind whenever he contemplated the idea. Sometimes he wondered whether this anger, this bitterness was all his fault. The dragon was wise and things tended to not go very well when Merlin ignored its advice, but surely even Kilgarrah wasn't infaliable.

Except.

Merlin had realized Morgana's initial reaction to his and Arthur's deception were the most telling. She couldn't understand why they'd stand by and let people be executed for magic (she seemed to have forgotten the mysterious rash of people, who somehow managed to escape the dungeons mere hours before facing the gallows – they were also the first to come out of the Camelot forests after Arthur's coronation and swear allegiance to the new king). What Morgana never understood is that as prince, Arthur would never betray his king. Bend the rules, protest rulings, or even outward disobedience, yes, but he'd never actually commit treason against the crown. Morgana was too ready to argue with the Uther, too willing to throw poisoned words at the king in order to win the argument. Merlin shuddered to think what might've happened had Morgana carelessly thrown out the information that his son was harbouring a sorcerer to prove a point.

But even the most logical argument did not penetrate Merlin's haze of despair. Here, at the battlefield, he let Albion's pain wash over him, own him. Silently, he begged her to release him from her grace, to let him die along with his king.

"Merlin!" a man's voice finally penetrated his ears. He listened and heard hoofbeats of a galloping horse.

Merlin looked up and watched as the knight approached. He was missing his helmet and so Merlin quickly recognized Gwaine. A bit of warmth spread within him when he realized his friend had survived the battle. Taking a deep breath, he stood to meet his friend. His vision was a bit blurry and Merlin realized he was weeping, but he made no move to wipe away the tears. Gwaine lept off his horse before it had even properly stopped.

"Merlin, I'm glad you're alive, my friend!" he exclaimed.

He stopped just in front of Merlin and placed a hand on his shoulder, looking at the sorcerer with worried eyes.

"I'm too late, aren't I?" Merlin croaked at him. It wasn't really a question, but he still wanted to hear it spoken by human lips.

Gwaine's eyes filled with tears.

"Mordred is dead," he said. "But he dealt Arthur a mortal blow. The king still lives, but not for long. He sent me to find you, because you would know what to do with this."

Merlin blinked and looked down, for the first time noticing what Gwaine was holding in his hands. He took the long object, wrapped in what he recognized as Arthur's cloak and unwrapped a corner. Excalibur.

"I tried to convince him not to, but he insisted it needed to be hidden somewhere safe."

Merlin nodded. "He's right," he said, gently caressing the hilt that symbolized Arthur's strength and connection to Albion as her chosen king. "This sword was forged and tempered for Arthur. Anyone else wielding it could bring disaster upon the world."

"Then where shall I take it?"

Merlin took a deep breath, shaking off the sorrow he'd cloaked himself in. He had responsibilities to see to; he couldn't disappear just yet. And he knew what needed to be done right now.

"It needs to be set to rest somewhere no one will ever find it," he finally replied.

Placing a hand on his friend's shoulder, Merlin thought of a place he hadn't been to in a very long time. Whispering the spell under his breath, he closed his eyes, feeling the spell wash over himself and Gwaine, whisking them off like creations of the wind and then depositing them in the middle of a clearing in a forest far away. Bracing himself for the pain this place always brought him, Merlin opened his eyes.

"Where are we?" Gwaine whispered, the usually loud knight somehow being overcome by the peace and sanctity of the place.

Merlin quirked a half smile at his friend, the closest he knew he'd come to his usual bright smiles for a very long time.

"We are here to return Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake, who will guard it until it is needed again," he said.

Somehow, the knowledge that Excalibur would one day be needed again didn't surprise Merlin the way it should have. His heart constricted at the thought that someone other than Arthur would one day hold this sword. However, he also finally understood, that Excalibur, although Arthur's, belonged to Albion, not Arthur and she would bestow it on a worthy champion when it was needed.

Merlin turned away from Gwaine to face the lake. He unwrapped Excalibur and watched for a few moments as the sun reflected off its surface. No matter where they were, light always managed to find it, and Excalibur would then become the shining beacon that cut through any darkness. Gwaine took Arthur's cloak from Merlin's hands and the sorcerer walked up to the water's edge.

"Freya!" he called out. "Will you once more take this sword and protect it against those, who'd wish to use it wrongly?"

For a moment there was nothing. Then the surface of the lake began to shimmer with tiny waves. At the centre of the lake, a dark-haired head began to break the surface. The Lady of the Lake walked towards Merlin, slowly coming out of the water, as though she were walking up a flight of stairs only she could touch. Her hair was long and smooth, her lips pale pink as she stepped out of the lake and her long white dress was plain. Although she was stepping out of water, there wasn't a sign of moisture anywhere on her.

"Emrys," she greeted, once she was within an arm-span of Merlin. She smiled sweetly, though there was sorrow in her eyes. She held her arms out. "I will once again take the sword into the lake with me and become its guardian until Albion once again needs her champion to take it up."

Carefully, Merlin handed Excalibur over to the Lady of the Lake.

"I'm sorry for leaving you with such a burden," he blurted out, not quite wanting her to be gone just yet.

She looked more regal than the skinny waif of a girl he'd rescued, fell in love with and then lost all those years ago, but time had not changed her. Just as Albion would not allow him to age and die either. And still death was a chasm that separated them.

"I take this burden gladly, Merlin, you know that," Freya answered and this time the fondness in her eyes outweighed the sorrow. "Don't worry about me. The lake is peaceful and through it I can feel the rest of Albion. Your choice is wise: none will be able to find the sword here."

Merlin nodded, knowing this to be true. Even if stories spread of a sword in a lake, there were many lakes in Albion and not many individuals would have the power to summon the Lady of the Lake even if they figured out which one it was.

"It was good to see you again," he said, because he needed to say it, to acknowledge the brief connection they'd shared outside their greater Destiny.

"You too," she smiled. "But now you should hurry to your king's side while he still draws breath. 'Till next time we meet, fare thee well, Emrys."

With that, the Lady of the Lake turned around, cradling Excalibur in her arms as the precious treasure it was, and began to descend her way back down into the lake.

"Good-bye, Freya," Merlin whispered after her.

When she was gone, he turned away and headed back to where Gwaine stood, a stunned look upon his face. Then he shook his head in amusement.

"All these years and you're still full of surprises."

Merlin chuckled darkly.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sure this is one thing I never told Lancelot about," he said.

The knight's face darkened at the mention of their one-time friend's name. "A little. But the Lady's right, we should hurry back to Arthur's side. He needs to know the deed is done."

Merlin nodded and then reached out to grasp his friend's arm. He closed his eyes and pictured Arthur, felt for that part deep in his soul where the two of them were linked – one side of a coin could always find where its other side was. The spell was whispered and, once again, they were whisked away by the wind. When they arrived, Merlin almost didn't open his eyes. For one, eternal moment he didn't want to see Arthur, didn't want to see his king near death, wanted to simply summon Kilgarrah and fly away to some distant land, perhaps somewhere, where they had elephants. He'd always wanted to see an elephant.

But the moment passed and Merlin found himself opening his eyes and letting go of Gwaine. There was a small gathering of knights at Arthur's side. Sir Leon was the only one not weeping, but Merlin could tell by his rigid posture and the tightly balled fist at his side, he was only hanging on by a thread. One that would, no doubt, be broken the moment his king passed into the next world.

The knights moved aside to allow Merlin to pass.

"Excalibur is safely hidden, my lord," said Merlin as he knelt at Arthur's side. Arthur had been watching him approach and now he smiled pleasantly.

"Good. And I'm glad Morgana didn't hurt you."

"Morgana is dead."

Arthur nodded, closing his eyes. Merlin finally took the opportunity to look at Arthur's wounds. He'd never quite gotten the hang of healing magic, but perhaps... His hopes sank when he saw the long dagger sticking out of Arthur's abdomen. He could practically smell the dark magic rolling off of it.

"The dagger is cursed," he said, despair once again rushing over him in waves. "I won't be able to heal you."

Arthur chuckled and opened his eyes again.

"You always were rubbish at healing anyway. The only thing you're worse at is being a manservant."

Merlin rolled his eyes.

"I was a perfectly good manservant. 'S not my fault the prince I was working for was such a prat. Not that the kingly version was any better mind, just a bit more royal."

"Well, the prince was cursed with this horribly incompetent idiot as a servant. One he then found out was doing half of his chores with magic!"

Then the king reached out and grasped Merlin's hand. Merlin shifted the grip and then tightly squeezed Arthur's hand in both of his own. It took all of his willpower to stop himself from breaking down in tears. Arthur winced and Merlin forced himself to relax his hold. Arthur smiled again.

"It really is a good thing that loud-mouthed boy, who didn't know his place, ended up being a better friend than manservant."

"And I suppose that royal prat didn't turn out too badly."

"Hey, I was a brilliant king!"

The protest was a mere whisper, lacking any sort of strength and Merlin knew his king had only a few moments left. Arthur closed his eyes and Merlin tried to smile through the silent tears he could no longer keep from falling.

"Yes, you were," he whispered. "Good-bye, Arthur."

Arthur let out one, last breath and then his body stilled. Merlin pressed his forehead to the hand he still clutched and finally allowed the sobs he'd been holding in to force their way out. He could feel Albion's sorrow as it too grieved for its king, its chosen ruler. In a flash of sudden anger, he wanted to rip himself away and demand why it let him die, why Merlin was forced to live on forever, when Arthur was now dead.

Suddenly, he felt familiar magic gently wash over him. Only once had he ever felt this pull and it had been a long time ago, but he still remembered it. When he looked up, he saw a river appearing through a mist, where none had been before. The gateway to Avalon. A boat with no oars floated towards them, three women sitting inside – one at the front and two at the back - a bed of leaves and flowers between them. Merlin stood, eyes widening as he recognized them.

Nimeuh felt like a long-forgotten dream as she smiled at him when they reached the shore. Dressed in a long, white dress, she looked as beautiful as ever, though her eyes seemed gentler, as though death had soothed her anger. It was the other two women, however, who had Merlin stunned speechless.

"Mum," he finally whispered in disbelief. Hunith smiled back at him and though she didn't speak a word, he could feel her love envelope him, greeting him and telling him she was proud of the man he'd become. He wanted nothing more than to leap into the boat and throw himself at her feet to sob into her arms as he once used to. But he knew the rules; the living could not interact with the dead, not directly.

The woman next to his mother was one he'd never met, but he recognized her nonetheless. Ygraine Pendragon looked exactly like her portrait that now hung beside Uther's in the feast hall. He nodded to her in greeting and she smiled sadly back.

"Greetings Emrys," Nimueh called out. "We have come for Arthur, to take the Once and Future King to his resting place in Avalon."

Merlin looked at Nimeuh sceptically. She laughed.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not here to harm him. I was once so blinded by anger at the injustice inflicted upon my brethren by Uther Pendragon that I could not see what the Old Religion was trying to tell me. Arthur Pendragon has corrected the wrongs done by his father as you always knew he would. I am satisfied."

Merlin nodded and then motioned at the knights to stand back. Nimeuh stepped out of the boat and glided towards the dead king. In her hands, she held a golden goblet, one Merlin recognized all too well. He frowned, wondering what she was up to. She held the goblet over Arthur's body and poured its contents onto the dead king.

A soft glow enveloped Arthur's body. Several of the knights gasped as, before their eyes, Arthur's injuries began to disappear, his skin and armour losing the blood and grime from battle and death. And then, finally, Nimeuh reached down and removed the cursed dagger. The glow disappeared, leaving behind a healthy-looking Arthur.

His golden hair shone as the sun kissed its locks and the beard he'd grown simply because it annoyed Merlin so much was full and unmarred by blood and Arthur's spit. The smile he'd died with was still on his face. He looked as though he were merely sleeping, waiting for some princess to bestow an enchanted kiss in order to waken. If only he were breathing.

"Lift up your king and take him to the boat," Nimeuh commanded. "But take care not to touch the water."

The knights exchanged unsure glances and then looked to Merlin for guidance. Camelot's Court Sorcerer nodded and immediately they scrambled to do as the woman bid.

"He will be well cared for, Emrys," Nimeuh said softly, stepping closer to Merlin, but not touching. "He is Albion's champion and the last king of the Old Religion."

"Thank you," Merlin said softly, never taking his eyes off the body of his friend as it was solemnly carried to the boat by six of Arthur's knights. He couldn't help but feel that it was a part of him they were carrying off.

Once Arthur was laid onto his bed of leaves and flowers, the knights stood aside. Without another word, Nimeuh turned and walked to the boat, climbing in effortlessly despite the movement of the river. As silently as it came, the boat sailed away from the shore and into the distance. The mist that clung to the edges of the river quickly rolled in, cloaking the boat from view.

"And so passes from this world, Arthur, High King of Albion," Merlin whispered as the mist dissolved into nothing, leaving no trace of its presence or the river's. "The greatest king Albion has ever seen, and ever will see."

A sob interrupted the stillness and Merlin heard something fall to the ground. He turned behind him to see Sir Leon fallen to his knees, his head buried in his hands and bent over so that his forehead was less than a foot off the ground. His king was gone, now he could weep openly.

Suddenly, a scream exploded into the air, making Merlin jump in alarm. It was Gwaine. His arms were open wide, head drawn back as he screamed his anger and grief into the sunny sky. Merlin wished he could join him, but the sorcerer knew that if he allowed himself to let go like that, he'd likely end up burning everything on the battle field, including his friends.

"He'll be back one day, you know," said a voice Merlin recognized instantly, though it had been years since he'd heard, or even thought, about it.

He turned to face the tall, skinny girl from the twenty-first century and another dimension.

"Dawn," he said quietly. "It's been a while."

"Yeah," she said brightly. "I learned how to control my powers – oh, who am I kidding? I learned about my powers period, did the whole meet and greet and then figured out how to use them without either a) blowing up the planet, b) getting stuck in another dimension, like, oh, say Camelot, for an indefinite period of time, or c) creating some sort of hell dimension out of the one I live in because I've accidentally opened a portal I can't close."

"Then why didn't you come to visit?" Merlin asked.

"I came to Arthur's coronation," she answered in a quiet, uneasy voice.

"Aha!" Gwaine suddenly exclaimed, making both Merlin and Dawn jump. "You're that beauty that kept trying to leave before the party had even started!"

Dawn blinked.

"Oh my god, you're that drunk knight that just wouldn't take no for an answer!" she exclaimed back. "There I was, trying to be discrete and you kept wanting to make a scene. I was so glad when that big guy came to distract you so I could leave."

Merlin frowned, wondering why she hadn't wanted them to know she was there. And then it hit him.

"You knew," he said, his voice sounding dull and cold even to him.

Dawn winced.

"Did I know Arthur was going to die at the battle of Camlann after finally defeating Mordred? Um.. yeah, I did. I mean, it's what happened in our legends anyway."

The intense anger that ignited within Merlin at her confession was like molton lave.

"Then why didn't you warn us?" he yelled, stalking towards her. "You could've told us!"

"So you could do what exactly?" Dawn yelled back, not backing down an inch. "Tell Arthur to stay at home, to not accompany his army into battle? Do you seriously think you'd have had a chance in hell of convincing him of that, Merlin?"

Merlin clenched his eyes shut, not wanting to hear the truth in her words. Yes, Arthur would've gone with his men even if he'd known he would die in the battle. He was stupidly noble that way.

"Or what if I had told you that Morgana would betray you?" Dawn continued. Merlin's eyes flew open. "What would you have done differently? Been suspicious of her every move? That would've only made her betray you sooner." She paused and looked into Merlin's face for a few moments, before delivering her final blow. "And most importantly, Merlin, how do you know that anything you did differently, wouldn't have only made things worse?"

Merlin sucked in a breath. Worse? Right now he couldn't imagine worse. Except that he could: he could imagine much worse.

"You said he'd back one day?" Sir Leon suddenly spoke up, his voice sounding hoarse.

"Yes," Dawn answered. "You've sent Excalibur back to the Lady of the Lake, right?"

Merlin nodded, swallowing around the lump in his throat. "It lies in wait for Albion's next champion to take it up."

Dawn's eyes softened with sympathy.

"No, not for the next champion, for the _same_ champion. Arthur is the Once and Future king, that means he will _always_ be the high king, forever Albion's champion. And one day, when Albion faces its darkest hour, he will take up his sword to come to her aid."

And, somehow, that made Merlin feel a little less like being swallowed up by a great pit of darkness would be a wonderful thing.

"Dawn, what are you doing here now?" he asked.

"Because, I know what it's like to lose someone very important to you and with Arthur dead, you're kinda in limbo with no true purpose anymore. Balance has been returned and the last of Albion's enemies are dead - well the magical ones anyway. Now you can kinda go and do anything you want really."

"I take it you have something in mind?"

"Ah, well, it's a really big universe out there with all sorts of dimensions and alternate universes to explore..."

Merlin thought about it. Part of him wanted to jump at the chance to just leave, go far, far away from the pain he was surrounded by, but part of him knew he had responsibilities now. Albion was without a king, a vulnerable time for any kingdom, but particularly when the king had died in battle alongside half his army.

Just then, a large hand landed on his left shoulder. Merlin looked up to meet Gwaine's sad eyes.

"We will miss you, my friend, but perhaps the beautiful young lady is right. Of all of us, you need the most time to heal, for you must be ready for Arthur's return." Merlin opened his mouth to protest, but the knight silenced him. "Aah, don't worry, we'll keep Albion safe."

And then Merlin found himself engulfed in a tight embrace.

"God's speed, my friend," Gwaine whispered into his ear. Then he let go and stepped back, a pathetic attempt at his signature care-free grin. "Only don't have so much fun you forget to visit now and then."

"I won't, I promise," Merlin said, attempting his own smile despite the tears that were once again streaming down his face.

If Arthur were still alive he'd call him a girl for all the crying he'd been doing today. And then Merlin would turn his hair green, which Arthur – the vain prat – wouldn't notice until two hours later when he finally noticed all the giggles aimed in his direction. Which would result in his storming into Merlin's lab demanding his Court Sorcerer change his hair back immediately or he'd send him to the stocks. Of course, Merlin would pretend he was rather excited about spending an afternoon entertaining the children, who gathered around the stocks and begin heading that way. They'd spend the entire walked to the stocks arguing (Arthur would once again be oblivious to the moment, when Merlin changes his hair back to its natural colour), passing Gwen somewhere along the way, who would merely shake her head in amusement at them.

Merlin let out a sob, using his sleeve to wipe his eyes, because he could no longer see anything through them. The rest of his life suddenly seemed so empty. Perhaps Dawn was right. He might never completely come to terms with Arthur's death, but perhaps he'd find the ability to breath hidden within some strange new dimension, somewhere that wasn't full of memories of his adventures with Arthur.

One by one, the knights said their farewells. Some he knew he'd likely never see again. Others, like Sir Gwaine and Sir Leon he'd try to remember to come back and visit. But perhaps it'd make things easier if he didn't have to watch them die as well.

Merlin and Dawn stood on the battlefield and waited until the last of them was gone from the horizon. Merlin took a deep breath and faced his new travelling companion.

"So, where to first?" he asked. He felt hollow, empty. Even his tears had stopped flowing.

Dawn shrugged.

"I was thinking maybe a nice, desolute hell dimension where you can indulge in some relatively harmless, but highly theraputic destruction," she said matter-of-factly.

Merlin blinked, surprised by the suggestion. She was giving him the chance to let go of his anger without fear of harming anyone? He thought of Gwaine screaming his anger and grief to the heavens.

"Yes, I like that idea," he finally said.

Dawn smiled. Then she closed her eyes, concentrating.

Merlin could feel the magic pooling around her. No. It was emanating _from _her. She opened her eyes and they were glowing green. Then she raised her hand and a pale green bubble appeared several stepped in front of them. Slowly, it expanded, until it was only slightly taller than Merlin himself. Inside the bubble, Merlin could see a barren landscape with a few, whithered trees and some giant boulders in the distance.

Merlin took a deep breath and stepped into the bubble without a single look back.

* * *

**The End... or The Beginning?**

Lol, before anyone even asks, yes, there will probably be some follow-up one-to-two-shot stories with Merlin and Dawn and their dimension-hopping adventures. And they will probably be crossovers with other series. So, stay tuned. Also, please review!


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